If I had to recall the first time I heard music, I wouldn’t be able to. Did my mom play music for me before I was born? After I came home from the hospital? On my first birthday? Music has been so deeply ingrained in my life for as long as I can remember, so trying to figure out when I first heard it would be impossible. As a child, my dream was to become a singer. I loved music and I loved singing; I joined the chorus at my elementary school in third grade which was the earliest one could join. I loved music class at school, and my teacher recommended me for “music enrichment” which was a special class she taught for students who enjoyed learning more about music. Only one other student besides myself took the class, and we learned how to play the violin as well as the piano. This was my first time learning to play an instrument other than the recorder and while it was really difficult it was also very fulfilling. I also signed up for band classes after school and played the flute for one year, but I realized that I wasn’t as passionate about playing instruments as I was about singing. I do regret not keeping up with at least playing the piano as that was the instrument I enjoyed learning and playing the most. Even outside of school, music was so ingrained in my life: the theme songs of TV shows that I watched after coming home from school that I still catch myself humming occasionally to this day, the Taylor Swift and Kelly Clarkson CD’s that I would play over and over again on my little blue CD player alone in my room writing down the lyrics as I listened. I would listen to country music with my best friend even though I could never understand the appeal, and even now that we have long since stopped being friends I am always reminded of running around with water balloons in her backyard in the middle of summer whenever I hear certain songs. To me, music is such a large part of my life and I truly wouldn’t be the same without it. I have heard songs that have changed the way I think, songs that made me cry, songs that made me want to dance. Some songs make me think of old friends or significant others, or specific moments in time. The way that music has been able to evoke such powerful memories and emotions from me is both exhilarating and terrifying at the same time; something as simple as a mixture of sounds can change your life.