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In honour of my graduating from the Gnessin Academy of Music— which I did with distinction, by the way—I was fired. There was no place for me in a mediocre, out-of-town music school. Thank you, they said, offering me tea, and kissingly wishing me all the best. I must have done a bad job, you think! No, far from it. My only fault was that I ‘noticed’: the headmaster had nonexistent people, ‘dead souls’, on his register, and he took their salary himself.
In college we are taught by those who know how to teach. When we graduate, we are taught by life – in other words, by random people, who cannot do anything, or who can do something you wouldn’t thank them for. So now you have to think how to find a job, any job. You are back to square one. Don’t go out of your front door, since no matte
