I learned to play the acoustic guitar when I was just ten, and my little fingers strained to stretch down the strings and reach the third fret. As I sat on my living room couch, I used to harshly strum my poor guitar as hard as I could, and the strings buzzed more often than not. Needless to say, my fingers were not always on the correct strings for each chord.

My dog, Kayla, was smart and ran far away every time she saw me pull out my guitar to practice, even when I finally mastered “On Top Of Spaghetti.”

As I entered middle school, I used music as my outlet when puberty and bullying hit hard. I would come home after a hard day at school (basically every day in middle school), and I would channel my inner Taylor Swift, as I jammed out to my favorite songs about deeper hardships than I had ever experienced and heartbreak I had yet to feel.

I’m twenty now, and my fingertips are adorned with hard-earned calluses. I have gone through some of those hardships and heartbreaks. They were messy and painful, but I always had my guitar to come home and jam on to forget any troubles and to pretend I was someone else rocking out on stage.

My guitar helped to bond my freshman year roommate and me together, as we both have played for several years, and we somehow even ended up in the same guitar class that the first semester. Playing the guitar alleviates the stress that comes from looking at my mile-long to-do list. It even elicits feelings of nostalgia when I play certain songs.

Playing “Best Day” by Taylor Swift reminds me of when I played it for my mom as her birthday gift eight years ago. I love to play “Drops of Jupiter” by Train because it takes me back to the years that it was my favorite song, and I played it all the time. “Shut Up And Dance With Me” by Walk the Moon reminds me of the first time I played my guitar in public at a coffee shop.

I will always hold those memories close to my heart, but it is even more special to be able to transport myself back in time just by strumming certain chords. I believe that everyone should learn to play an instrument. Learning to play the guitar took patience (from more than just myself, sorry, Kayla), but it has had an immensely positive impact on my life. As long as I am able to do so, I will never stop singing and strumming.