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Jacob Ahumada is a music major who enjoys reading Haruki Murakami, Aldous Huxley, and is studying German to read Nietzsche in its original form. He loves playing Bach and was reading The Brothers Karamazov under a tree when I caught up with him and asked if he plans to make music his career.

“Aw fuck, man, I used to think music would be my career but now I feel like the world is up for grabs.

“I just got back from a backpacking trip in Ecuador and Peru. That was fantastic. I threw myself out there and in spite of my foolishness it went very well. I mean I didn’t starve and I’m back, so that’s good.

“I volunteered at hostels. Most of the time there was a lot of cleaning involved. Cooking, setting up dishes, I did a little bartending, dish cleaning.

“It was a unique opportunity. But I went broke, man. I had no cash and I had to find out what to do there.

“I got stuck in Ecuador. I couldn’t find [work] there. I was looking for days and I ended up investing the little money I had saved in some bread and jamon and cheese to make sandwiches and try to sell them on the street.

“So I went out to try to sell them and it was a miserable fucking week, dude. I was steadily losing money. I passed my Christmas week on the street trying to sell sandwiches to people. It was terrible, man.

“I never thought I liked Christmas — it didn’t mean anything to mean until I ate bananas and water for days. That was difficult. At that point I was like, I need help.

“Last night I was thinking about my trip, and it’s funny to me, I can’t believe I actually did that. It’s insane. Why would I do that?

“But now that I’m back here I don’t want to be back. That’s what I mean, the world is up for grabs. Anyone with a mind for it can make the world their own.

“Before I was thinking about music as a career and now it just seems silly to me. I’m here, yeah, but it’s really pointless. Who cares if I don’t get my degree. A degree means shit. There’s so much out there. The world is so vast and so rich, you can learn a lot if you want to.

“Now to be back here and go through the daily grind, it’s just not satisfying anymore.”

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