If you're reading this article it must mean that there is some connection between you and music. For me, music is everything. Music is my passion, my outlet to relieve stress, my voice of reason after a long day and the background for some of the best memories I have had in my short 20 years on this crazy planet. Music is one of those things I believe everyone has their own connection to, whether it be on a basic or complex level, there is always that relationship.

Growing up I was raised in a family where music was a big deal. I began piano lessons at a young age and would listen to my brother practice trumpet in the evenings. My parents always emphasized music in our household. If you were in my house, it was almost guaranteed there was some time of alternative rock playing loud through out the living room and into the halls. The Police, The Goo Goo Dolls, Vertical Horizon and Matchbox 20 are what stood out for me as a major part of my childhood. I can remember car rides to the beach with my dad screaming "Da do do do, da da da da, that's all I want to say to you!" by The Police all the way to the beach on Sunday mornings. I can remember sitting in the bathroom as my mom did my hair for school that day while listening to "Unwell" by Matchbox on her bedside CD player.

I do not think I would be half as musically and creatively inclined as I am today without growing up with this influence in my life. My parents, probably unknowingly, gave me the most wonderful gift they could have ever given me by giving me music. Giving me something that is always there to listen to me, and giving me something that I would ultimately want to pursue for the rest of my life.

I have always had a thing for lyrics. There is something about lyrics for me that no matter the situation, I know that someone else has been there, and someone has written a song about it. I cannot tell you the amount of times throughout my childhood and early adulthood I have found myself online exploring for new music to relate to, usually beginning with "songs about...". Within these lyrics you can find a new way to understand whatever you are going through and also how others have dealt with the situation.

My friends and family have always been amazed at the way I can recall lyrics. I've gotten time and time again, "if only you could remember your school work the way you remember these "silly" songs you would be a straight A student." As much as I would like that to be the case, math equations and scientific formulas just didn't stick with me the way lyrics do...weird, right? Ha. I believe the reasoning behind this is that I do not see lyrics just as the words that flow along with a beat to create a song, but as feelings people have expressed in an artistic manner..

Victor Hugo was a French poet, novelist, and dramatist of the Romantic Movement. He is considered one of the greatest writers of the 1800s. He famously said, “Music expresses that which cannot be put into words and that which cannot remain silent.” Mr. Hugo got it right. Music helps us share with others what we cannot physically say, it helps us understand our thoughts and express ourselves in a manner greater than we would be able to attain.

As I have grown from a girl into a woman who has always loved music, who has loved to sing and express myself through this type of art -- I feel more compelled to share my own expression of music with others. I want to be able to help others say what they physically could not without music, and inspire young children just as I was, to find their passion, whether it be for music or not, and RUN with it.

Hunter S. Thompson, an American author and journalist in the early 1900s once said,

“Music has always been a matter of Energy to me, a question of Fuel. Sentimental people call it Inspiration, but what they really mean is Fuel. I have always needed Fuel. I am a serious consumer. On some nights I still believe that a car with the gas needle on empty can run about fifty more miles if you have the right music very loud on the radio.”

I encourage all of you to find your fuel, and to use that energy to drive you forward into the greatness that is your passion.