It is the start of my second week off from uni, and on Thursday, I'll be at the Melbourne Recital Centre for Erin Helyard performing Bach's Goldberg Variations on harpsichord. Thirty variations unfolding from a single aria, each one its own universe of mathematical precision and emotional depth. I remember Helyard conducting Handel's Messiah with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra in December 2024, and I was in the chorus. His direction brought out those moments where text and music fused into something transcendent.
This week, I should finally get access to my units at the new uni. My Learning Access Plan is now active, which feels good after so much advocacy. These accommodations will create conditions that enable my brain to show what it can do rather than what it can't.
Music has always been the language I understand most fluently. In the architecture of Bach's variations, there's something about the way complexity emerges from simplicity that mirrors how I experience learning itself. One foundational idea, endlessly transformed. Each variation is a different lens, a different pathway to understanding. Perhaps that's why the Goldberg Variations feel so essential right now. They remind me that depth isn't about covering more ground but about exploring what's already there with greater attention.
The space between finishing one semester and beginning another holds its own music. Rest isn't absence. It's the silence between notes that gives them meaning.
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