England: Scott Pickett (A Home Away from Home in London)

A Home Away from Home in London

Music has often become my everyday experience. I structure my schedule around it. Monday evening I have orchestra rehearsal, Tuesday evening I have a social with the Imperial Music Society, and Friday I have a concert to go to. Almost every connection I have made here has been a result of a mutual love of music. I have found connection and community through the welcoming and diverse music community and I have been able to orient much of my experience through it. Prior to coming to London, I was wracked with terrible social anxiety which would leave me unable to build connections by myself. I had only ever made friends through mutuals but as someone moving to a new country a problem presented itself, I had no friends to begin with. I had to face my fears of meeting and socializing with new people and the music scene allowed me a safe, comfortable, and friendly space to socialize. Looking back, a lot of my fears had to do with not being accepted and being put in unsafe situations as a queer person. Especially coming from the suburbs of Wisconsin there are very few spaces that are explicitly safe for queer people to socialize and simply exist. In London on the other hand there are pletherous of spaces which are explicitly safe for queer communities. The signs would be written on the walls with stickers and messages plastered in the venue displaying messages of solidarity and support. In these venues, I would find myself finally free to socialize and meet new people without fear of not being accepted. The specific experience of a musical space in London is something that I will miss dearly after moving back to The United States. While Madison and Wisconsin largely do have vast music scenes it is not comparable to that of London. Not because Wisconsin’s is worse or because they don’t have as fun of accents but simply because they are completely separate entities. Wisconsin and London have vastly different subcultural histories and therefore traditions meaning that the experience is vastly different as well. Even if I am able to experience music in Madison it will be nothing like the music and the spaces that I experience in London.

Scott Pickett

Major: History, English, and Psychology

Hometown: Appleton, Wisconsin