When growing up, your education is seen as the most important part of your life. School teaches students so much from being able to find the hypotenuse of a triangle to something as simple as waiting in line. We were taught to retain information just to pass a test and when we got that grade we just dropped it so would could focus on the next test at hand.
The test school doesn't teach is the test of life and how to take it on head-first. We are taught all of these things that may not help our direct lives but how to do certain things. Not how to deal with life on a moral standpoint or discover who we truly are. School teaches us to label things and define the differences in different groups, if that be by gender, race or sexual orientation. There is one thing that brings everyone together and that is the idea of love. That idea is what makes people express who they truly are and the way I have found that idea is through the use of music.
Imagine your favorite song that you love so much. The song that you sing at the top of your lungs every single time it comes on and you got goose bumps the first time you heard it. Not the catchy song you enjoy, but the one that resonates deep down inside of you. That song is your song, but when you're at a concert or music festival so many other people you've never meet a day in your life will sing that same song with you. To them it may not mean the same thing to you, but they are singing it with you and for that brief moment every problem in the world seems to go away, and you and all of those people in that around are all the same. School hasn't exactly taught me to bond with people, just to get along so we can get a certain goal accomplished or for our own well being.
School has never taught me the idea of perspective, but just facts and how to do certain things. It never teaches you to think outside of the box and in deeper meanings of life but to do certain tasks so you can be successful and with that you don't get to truly enjoy life. John Lennon once said, "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans." We live in a world that people seem to be so set on their goals and fail to recognize what is around us and miss the pure essence of life. Life isn't meant to be planned out when tomorrow is not promised. The term "Carpe Diem" comes to mind of ceasing the day, but for someone, ceasing the day is just an act of making money to pay some bills.
People go to college to get a job so they can pay bills and most of the time end up go into a major that makes them money but isn't their true passion. It's odd to think that sacrificing your true passion so you can make money seems acceptable. Your passion is your song, the one that you feel and is the best song for you. For me I believe Kanye West explained it in the best way possible in his song "All Falls Down" by going to say:
"Man I promise, she's so self conscious, she has no idea what she's doing in college. That major that she majored in don't make no money but she won't drop out, her parents will look at her funny. Now, tell me that ain't insecure, the concept of school seems so secure."
Just like anything there are negatives, some music promotes materialistic things and I don't agree with them, but some music has had a deeper meaning to me than a lecture. There are amazing educators out there that teach life lessons as much as possible. Music is the best professor I've ever had and with that I love to keep learning from it.
Sheetal Tadiparty
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