I’m one of the most indecisive people you’ll ever meet, but the one thing I’ve always known is my love for music. The song "Thank You for the Music" by ABBA goes, “Mamma says I was a dancer before I could walk, she says I began to sing long before I could talk,” and my parents have told me time and time again that both things are true of my own life. My first hit was Celine Dion’s "My Heart Will Go On" and they love reminding me that I used to belt it out with all the effort that two-year-old me could manage.
It seems impossible that there is something that exists that is a science, a type of mathematics, a physical education, a foreign language, and an art form. Yet, music exists. The sound waves are the science, the rhythmic divisions are the math, the breathing and coordination constitute the physical aspect, the language is simultaneously foreign yet universal, and the soul that inebriates all music accounts for the art.
I’ve spent eight years (nine if you include my first semester of college) participating in choirs on some level. It’s definitely seen as nerdy or a waste of time by some people, it’s really just like any other team, group, or organization. Being in a choir gives you the opportunity to be part of something bigger than yourself. You hear your own voice melding into everyone else’s and creating a sound that you could never produce on your own. I still get to sing masses at church whenever I go home, and the sweetest ladies always come up to me afterwards to say how much they love when I sing. One in particular told my mom that my voice always makes her cry, and the fact that I impacted someone like that by doing something so simple and natural to me is the most incredible thing.
Music has always been my outlet and escape; it’s one of the few constant things in a dynamic life. I saw a poster once that said “The function of music is to release us from the tyranny of conscious thought,” and that is exactly what it does. Because of it, I have not only been a musician and singer, but also a writer, a performer, a composer, and a believer. I love that no matter who you are, what you do, where you come from, what you believe in, or what language you speak, music is the same. It is the universal language that is collectively understood but still not wholly discovered. Music is a unifying force, and it’s been said that music is the only language where you can’t say something mean or sarcastic. Songs are open for lyrical interpretation, and scores of music are available for use by artistic licenses; yet, they are all appreciated the same way. No two songs will ever be the same and no two people will ever have the same musical experience and that absolutely blows my mind.
It has the power to change you forever and make you feel things you’ve never felt before without so much as a moment’s notice. It can amplify something you’re already feeling, or cause an emotional 180 and turn everything around. Whatever you’re going through, whatever it is you’re feeling, whatever it is you really truly need – music is always going to be there if you let it.
