some person told me that i could not ever reach grade 8 in my flute just because i am 17 and that i have onlyplayed flute for 2 years...

she even told me to forget about joining an orchestra!!

hav ever ben discouraged like this before?? i mean c`mon! this lady was one of those college tutors!

Don`t be discouraged. It really will all depend on the effort you put into it. If you practice well every day for a couple of hours, you can move mountains, so to speak.

"Based on the results you have exactly as you intended."
Think about it... If you really want this you can do it!
I know the feeling though... When I told my parents I wanted to go to Juilliard they laughed and told me I had no talent... But I just kept working at it...

I`ve been playing for 3 years, but taking lessons since last September. I started in grade 2, I`m presently in grade 4 and I will be doing my Grade 4 exam in August, so I will start high school (and I`m going to a school with a PA program which you have to get in by audition) already in Grade 6. It`s not hard to move fast as long as you are committed, so don`t worry about it. I have people saying that I`m a show off and that won`t get me anywhere, but I CAN`T STAND THEM! They`re so horrible! There are people who can only play in the key of Bb and breathe all over the place, yet they think they`re amazing and possibly better than me (even without lessons!). I sure hope they will do better by the time we do that festival at Canada`s Wonderland. I really do. They can play with 2 flats, no more and no less. Yet one of the songs has a key change from one flat (there is no E natural in the song, thankies to the heavens) to 4 flats. Who does the trumpet-playing music teacher send to help? Nobody. She gives them the fingerings. You know how they can only play with Eb and Bb? They play the high E natural all the time! And they can`t come to realize that Db is the same as C#. They have their thumbs on the Bb Thumb Key when they are playing B natural (Which is why I was curious about the one of the compositions [for a school project] ending on that note after a Bb. SHE THOUGHT IT WAS AN ACCENT OR SOMETHING SIMILAR!)
You have a chance, believe me.
(They called me a show off on a PLAYING TEST which was AS SIMPLE AS IT GETS. On a TEST you USUALLY try to do it good. They also claimed that the girl who made that song that ended on B natural got perfect when she was horrible.)

Don`t listen to her. She is an idiot. I first started the violin when I was 17, and I have every intention of getting to Grade 8 and beyond.