Transcript

Nico Durkee:

So I’m in the percussion section and I play bass drum at the moment. I just really love the aspect of percussion. How flexible all the music can be. I just really like hitting stuff, you know?

My name is Nico Durkee. I’m a Studio Art major with a minor in Zoology, and I’m from Biddeford, Maine. And this is my life in the pines.

I feel like I’m more comfortable with playing with molten metal, pretty much. We’re in the Sculpture Studio that’s a part of the UMaine Art Program, which I thought that coming into art school, I would literally just be drawing or painting or something like that. But this is a whole new level that I didn’t even know that was here when I first got here. And it’s really cool to be able to have a really cool space to create and express my creativity.

I am a really big fan of sculpture. Like once I got into the art program and I got in deep, I was like, this is probably one of the main things I really want to do. I never knew that this was going to be a big part of my life here at UMaine. It’s a really cool place to be in. So many different things that you can do here. There’s printmaking, there’s painting, there’s drawing, there’s sculpture, there’s ceramics that I didn’t even know about until I was here. So, yeah, there’s a lot of, there’s so many things to do when you’re an art major here at UMaine.

I’ve lived in Maine pretty much all my life. It’s such a lovely community. I love every aspect about UMaine, especially Maine as a state. I wanted to stay here no matter what.

The UMaine Marching Band would come to like one of our competitions each year. And that kind of like really gave me that spark to want to be a part of this program and be a part of like the big guys, I guess. Like we almost have a hundred people in our band at the moment, so it’s like a pretty cool opportunity. I came from such a small program with like under 30 people. It’s such a cool thing to have people from your hometown like cheer you on.

Sometimes you’re just like so in the moment that it’s like, it’s crazy. Like they’ll step on onto that field. I won’t remember a second of what I do. I just look out into the crowd and I’m like, “Wow, I’m really doing this right now.”

So it’s not like it’s not like this is a small school whatsoever, but like it feels like these groups are so tight knit, like within like marching band and like the equestrian team and even like the art program. I feel like I have my own like little like groups.

I have always been interested in like horses and stuff like that since I was little, but, obviously it’s a very expensive sport to get into. So I never really got the chance to do it when I was little. So it was really cool to be able to put this effort into be able to do this like in college and like be able to like even compete, which is like really cool with like everyone else.

So the Student Involvement Fair is when I really found out about it. I was just like aimlessly walking around and then I saw the table and I realized, “Oh, there’s actually like people who here who like ride horses and do all that kind of stuff.” And then I kind of just let it simmer in my brain for a little bit. So I was like, “Do I really have the time with marching band?” And I was like, “I can make the time.” So I, I made the time to do it. And like, I, I get to know so many like cool people and so many people from different backgrounds.

I feel like UMaine has really let me, like, come out of my shell more. Being here is almost like a leaf being blown in the air. Like you’ll never know where you, where you’ll fall, but you’re not worried about the journey that it takes to get you here, I guess.

Hi, Calvin. You almost threw me off last time. Let’s go!