One note on a piece of paper can set the tone for the entire collection of works. One sound can resonate with someone for the rest of their life. It only takes one to make a world of a difference. Music is one of the greatest gifts you can give to someone. It's been around since the beginning of time. It's been in my life everyday.

I grew up in a small town where rap, punk, and rock music ran rapid. One genre was usually abundant in the houses of the older crowd (my parents) but it has stuck with me ever since, country. You name it, Jason Aldean, George Strait, and even Johnny Cash I've heard it all, and don't even get me started on Randy Travis and his three wooden crosses on the right side of the highway, because this story will never have a point to it.

There are three reasons why music has become my life:

1. I've been surrounded by it.

Ever since I was born music has been played nonstop around me. I cleaned my room to clean up by Barney, to crying myself to sleep to stupid boy by Keith Urban after a big breakup. I can remember riding with my dad everyday after I got my school work done, I would hop in the big purple van and crank the radio to 104.3 or 105.1 and Randy Travis or George Strait would boom out of the speakers. It was a sound that I would never grow tired of hearing.

2. It calms me down.

I know we all have had a time or two where we've been involved in a situation where we have gotten upset at someone and had no option or way of calling down unless we used a vice. Now we all have our own way of dealing with the stress that emerges with fights. Some of us smoke a cigarette, take a shot, a hot bath, whatever works. I prefer to isolate myself in my room, put my headphone in turn on my favorite song and lay down and let the music speak to me as I slowly begin to assess the situation at hand, the words that were exchanged and the possible solution for the situation if it happens to arrive again. I am able to escape and enter a whole new world without problems. I only have to worry about me, myself, and I. I used this technique when I would walk across campus and I didn't want to talk to anyone. Country music is the only one, once again that is able to calm me down.

3. I'm musically inclined.

This is me partially bragging. I started piano lessons when I was around six years old, and I fell in love with it. It was easy for me to pick it up, but I knew if I wanted to get better at it I had to practice. With school, track, and dance, that made it a little difficult, but I made it work. I took up the violin when I was eleven, but the desire for it wasn't the same as my piano. I hope to own a baby grand piano one day.

Is music your life too? Comment and let me know!