Hey lovelies,
A few weeks ago, I thought about sharing my literacy narrative I typed for my composition class and I got a great grade for it and felt so accomplished because my professor even liked it! So I thought: why not share it?
Please enjoy my essay about how music has affected my life:
Have you ever heard music that made chills travel up your spine? Have you sat in complete darkness with nothing on but music that spoke to your heart and made you feel like everything was going to be okay? I can’t remember a time when music has not affected me this way.
This is the many times music has saved my life.
I remember being a little girl and the problem of looking different from everyone else and the struggle of anxiety talking to people made me want to stay quiet for the rest of my life; let my brain keep all my thoughts inside like a prison. The one solution that I could turn to for everything was my little stereo that sat in the corner of my hot pink and lime green bedroom.
Young Disney Channel days Selena Gomez, Hannah Montana, and Demi Lovato CDs were spread out around the stereo and inside would hold a disc to another world to escape. The songs would be my voice to share all my feelings even if they were one percent relevant to my childhood life. I didn’t want to leave the bubble the music held for me but I had to.
I still lock myself up in a room when I need to just zone out and let the music take over my brain and it is an escape.
That is only one example of music saving me.
The real life realm that took place every week in first grade was dance class. The days when my dance instructor sat all of my dance class against the wall and played music for everyone to freestyle groove to were my favorite days because I could let out all my feelings the music gave me when they put it on.
I took dance for seven years.
The first school dance I had was in sixth grade. Being an 12 year old with the love of music and dancing was a combination of something very entertaining to watch. My mother dropped me at the dance, all nervous of me not having fun and told me to call her if I needed her to come pick me up sooner than it would end. I walked into my school cafeteria in a black tutu dress with a pink ribbon around my waist and my hair curled to find my best friend, Kaylee, who was never a dancer and avoided being center of attention. We got a cup of grapes and sat down at a lunch table to enjoy the music being played by the DJ with no worries of dancing.
We sat and watched until the DJ announced there was a dance off happening. I turned to my best friend in her sky blue dress with an excited smile on my face, “I am going to dance!” And I was off onto the small area in the middle of the cafeteria, surrounded by all my classmates. It seemed like something out of a movie with how they started cheering my name and I was holding my leg up, dancing around, twirling, all of the dance moves you could do without doing the splits and touch the nasty white floor.
The results of this really spontaneous dancing was winning the dance off. I got frosted cookies and my mom’s face when I walked out screaming about this was priceless. She was so nervous for me but to see me afterwards made her feel better.
Dancing brought me out of my shell.
Dancing to music is another way music has saved my life.
During my teen years, I went to see my Nanaw (great grandma) every so often because my dad lived with her. The house held the warm aura of family and welcomeness with the hint of old fashion wallpapers and furniture. In front of the house, there was a huge window that overlooked pastures of hills and in that family room was a piano.
Every time I went to see her, I would always pretend that I knew what I was doing with the out of tune keys on that old piano with my hands. My nanaw would tell me it sounded great when in reality, it sounded like a song you would turn off immediately.
The infatuation of learning how to play was engraved into my wishlist when I would listen to my grandmom play. When I went to visit, I always looked forward to any opportunity to hear he play music. Once, in her home, she had a room full of instruments hung on the wall from banjos to guitars to even a xylophone. She had me sit with her at her black shiny grand piano so she could give me a piano performance.
I watched as she tilted her glasses downward and shook her hands to prepare herself. I must admit: this was building my anticipation to watch. When she opened her piano book, the notes were foreign language and difficult to read but when her hands touched the keys, her hands were fluent in the language of the music and spoke so naturally. She played so peacefully that I accidentally dozed off for a second before coming back into reality when she stopped playing.
Pianos are magical and one of the most heavenly instruments to have ever existed.
I got my first keyboard when I turned 15 and took piano lessons throughout high school. I still remember my first piano lesson. My piano teacher held her lessons in her living room at her grand piano. It reminded me of my Nanaw’s which made me more happy to play on it.
This is my keyboard
Every piano lesson I would have, I had a special guest in the audience of that small living room surrounded by parakeets chirping happily and cats. There was a special cat that did not like to be touched or messed with but for some reason, she liked me. Sometimes, when I would play the keys, she would jump onto the top of the piano and just watch as my teacher showed me new songs and keys and listen to me play. That was one reason learning piano was worth it.
Playing piano is not an easy task but being able to know the keys and notes and songs made up all the hard work that came with it.
My favorite thing to do with being able to play piano is when someone’s birthday comes up, I try to serenade them with “Happy Birthday” because I love birthdays and showing off piano skills. Most importantly, being able to play piano has helped me take my mind off of nervousness, anxiety, and a distraction from the world.
Knowing how to play an instrument can really make you feel special with the control of the sounds from the instrument are from your own ability. You did that. The music made from every instrument is something to hold close to your heart.
Especially at concerts.
My first concert was when I was eight years old. The seats were on the highest level you could be on and the lucky performer that I saw was Taylor Swift with her guitar and curly hair and country music. That concert was the start of my discovery that being at places like that was like being in my room except with thousands of people listening to that music, too.
One of my most memorable concert that I have ever been to was the band Twenty One Pilots. I saw them this past June and it was the best night of my life. Their music and lyrics touch my heart in a way that no other band or singer ever has. Going to that concert was like going to therapy in the best way possible. I was not alone in my thoughts. I was not alone.
At the end of the concert, the band, which is just two guys, went up to the end of the stage and took a bow. The words that Tyler Joseph, the lead singer, said will be forever written into my brain.
“We are Twenty One Pilots and so are you.”
That statement to me meant that their music and concert was something that the fanbase created and that we are all one.
I really love concerts for this reason: they are like a celebration of music and being able to escape from reality.
Music is the superhero in my life I don’t think I can ever live without. Being able to sing, dance, play, listen, and celebrate the songs that help me in my life have tremendous results. I am so glad I learned that turning to music helps me go through life. I have music to hold onto until the very end.
Love always,
Zayniator
