The pounding melodies we listen to — I find them unique. What's the magic that comes in these five-minute speeches, varying at different tones, masked by the sound of great instruments, and rhyming that makes it something one must dance to?

Maybe it's because of the emotions that it exudes from us — like a great book or movie. But instead of just using words, maybe the tone that the sound gifts or curses to our ears matters in a way that, on its own, is capable of toying with the human emotion in crazy ways.

The peppy cheer of a piano or the mellow trumpeting of a saxophone is sometimes enough to make want to dance and never stop or cry in a river. For me — that's what makes music so great. And it's also something that I've used consistently to change my life.

I can't remember the first time I ever heard music playing — but I do know that even from the beginning of my life, I really loved it.

I'd know my favorite tunes, and what I thought at the moment, what I wanted to feel, and even what I did — it would change depending on if there was a CD contained with my favorite songs or if it something that I didn't really want to listen to. Then got a phone and things got even better.

For a good time, the only music that my ears would listen to was Indian. Old or new, it's all I would end up listening to until late in my life. So the first time I got a phone, I would be jumping headfirst into my Saavn queue playlist, listening to as much music as possible on the bus ride there. I was in middle school.

Fast forward my life to the sophomore year, and a good amount of my life is changing or already has changed. I'm a writer now. It's my first dwelling into entrepreneurship, and I'm as opportunistic as it can get. I depend on my queue to fill me with emotions. Emotions that can help me write. Write with passion and ferocity.

But even then, three years after I first got into streaming music, I didn't truly appreciate it. My queue wasn't diverse — it stuck to the same deep feelings. My thinking didn't change much. I still thought at a broad, surface-esque scale. But I started listening to it a little bit more.

I'd listen in between classes, on the rides home, and on my walks. It soon enveloped itself as an integral part of my life. It would lift me up when I felt down. Make me feel more secure when I felt weaker. Make me more passionate when I was demotivated. It helped me enhance what I feel and understand myself more.

Then came the summer. When I first took a real listen to Journey's "Don't Stop Believing," and Cristopher Cross's "All Right." They soon become 2 of my favorite songs. I'm pivoting what I do, making services for people to use. I need new music. Something that can inspire me. Something's that's freshly bold. Full of rhythm. A truly powerful message.

I walk across to a friends house one night. Soon, we end up creating a Spotify playlist full of songs he really likes. He likes oldie music.

Next thing I know, I'm listening to "Keep on Loving You," "Cold as Ice," "Livin' on a prayer." It's my first step into discovering great music.

Now, at this point in my life, I'm getting really busy and really stressed. I'm building a new website, preparing to take the SAT, and am knee deep in homework. I need something that will help me get through all of this.

So for the next two months, the rich punches that came from great old rock find itself thumping on my computer, alive and rich, my head bobbing up and down to the beats.

Then comes December. This is where the best part comes. I'm in my first hour, listening to "Billie Jean." The thing is, I almost never listened to the music of the legendary Michael Jackson. At that time, I didn't think I would like his music.

I was wrong beyond dimensions undefinable to mankind.

I remember a song I remember listening to a long time ago — all the way back to the fourth grade, ambiently playing in the background of music class while the kids yelled, that I remember was OK. I type in the words "Black or White." I click play.

That was the song that changed everything. I loved it to levels I have never loved a song before, and before I know it, my ears are filled with the works of Jackson — from the works in Invincible, HIStory, and Michael Albums, as well as songs like Human Nature, Smooth Criminal, BOTDF, Ghosts, and Scream.

At a time in which I needed something hard hitting, and magically inspiring to help me deal with the stress I faced. The fears I had coming through my mind.

My entire music changed and soon I was only listening to his godly music, his voice, the heartbeat of his music. It changed my life. Made me want to see the world in a historical perspective, in an artistic one, and go deep into the culture of what that music was representing, It changed the way I was thinking, and as a result, I was able to adapt to the workloads I had on myself.

Fast forward to March and I begin re-organizing my music. I start listening to The Script — essentially the only vocal artists of the modern era that I genuinely like. Over what I can consider the hardest month of my life, I begin to develop a taste from Freedom Child, Science and Faith, and a couple of miscellaneous songs from other albums, like The Script.

They teach me to develop a mindset set to rebound. To be ready to jump back up from a fall, and to push through anything that tries to keep me back down. Fast forward to May, and now, my music is more diverse than ever. Sometimes, I'll listen to an Indian song when I need nostalgia.

Sometimes, I just need the richness of piano to flood my ears. Sometime, the works of Jackson will fill my ears once again. Then you'll also find me listening to the songs of Find Your Own Way Home, Hi Infidelity, and singing to the tunes of In my Dreams.

It changes the way I think and it pushes me to deal with things that go wrong. It teaches me to quell my emotional thoughts, to explore and ponder thoughts like abstract space. It gives my mind an outlet to be free. Free of rules and directions to follow. Just quell itself in its own thoughts, while I work. It keeps me going like no movie has.