A Soundtrack of Learning

The following is my submission for the 2019 Princeton Writes staff essay contest. I didn't win, but I liked what I wrote.

After years of applying to jobs at Princeton, the interviews, the fits and starts, I finally got The Job. I was so excited that not even a tire blowout on Route 1 on the morning of my first day could dull my enthusiasm. But as unforeseen as that was, even more unforeseen was the other feeling that would come over me, once I finally made it onto campus.

It hit me like an orange and black brick. “Whoa. I’m in the big leagues now,” I said to myself, walking through campus to get to my office. I have been associated with a number of different colleges throughout my life and career: small schools, big schools, even another terrific Ivy League school, but Princeton is singularly one unto itself. Walter Becker, the late co-founder of Steely Dan, once looked around at the collection of ace studio musicians he and Donald Fagen brought in to record their about-to-become legendary album Aja, and said, “Wow. I’m really outclassed here.” That quote was ringing in my ears as I walked past real English ivy on spectacular Princeton buildings.

And during that walk, maybe it was a ghost of Princeton past who whispered in my ear, “Whatever game you brought to Princeton, you need to raise it.”

There it was. There was that feeling that I had not anticipated. Gulp. So how did I get over that? How did I overcome feeling like I was outclassed?

In days of yore, when smartphones first roamed the earth, we used to say, “There’s an app for that.” Feeling like I needed to raise my game to the highest it’s ever been, feeling like I don’t want to be outclassed, feeling like I need to be worthy of this place, I said, “There’s a podcast for that.”

I work at a council at Princeton focused on entrepreneurship, but I did not have much experience with the startup world or even much of an idea of what venture capital was. So I turned to podcasts. With podcasts like Startup and The Pitch, I learned so much about what it is to pour your life into an idea, take that idea, and pitch it to people with the means to help turn that idea into a reality. Or decline to invest, leaving the idea on paper for the next set of people with means. With podcasts, I was entertained and educated about entrepreneurship. I learned what a “Series A” round of funding is. I learned how odd words like Uber and Twitter became household names. I learned that an “exit” is not just a sign above a door. Perhaps most importantly, I learned that I was an entrepreneur in many ways as well.

I had left a career in environmental consulting that was fine, with good money and the ability to use the formal science education I had received at those small and big schools. But changing careers, building a portfolio of creative skills and experience, taking an idea (I want to do creative work at Princeton) and pitching it to people with the means to make that idea into reality (my workgroup), I realized I was doing something quite similar to the people that I heard about in long binges of podcast listening. I was making a go of turning an idea into reality while learning in my car, learning on the train, learning while doing the dishes, learning while doing any number of things people do, but now with a soundtrack of learning.

I enjoy hearing both the content and the craftsmanship of a good podcast. I’m a designer at heart and a good design tells a story. In visual communication, the goal is to guide the eye through a design to effectively communicate a point. This guidance is a way of telling a story. In the same manner, I enjoy thinking about the audio choices that went into the design of a production. How is this three-second bumper of music supposed to guide my ear? What is it supposed to trigger in my imagination? How am I supposed to feel after a dramatic stop, followed by an uneasy silence, followed by the end credits?

Happily, my podcast journey is coming full circle, as I write and plan a new podcast about entrepreneurship of my own production for my department. While the hope is that the podcast is entertaining and interesting, under the surface, my own hope is that this new podcast is a good soundtrack of learning. 

I don’t feel as outclassed now. Rather, I am energized. Maybe the ghost of Princeton past would say to me now, “Keep raising your game.” There is always something new to learn. I am still listening.