Music is life

  Somehow, some way, everything in my life comes back to music. It's a never failing reality that I'm blessed with every day. I guess I should have seen this coming, you know, it's not like it fell on me like a flash flood or anything. Music's always been there for me, right from the beginning. 
 From the time I can recollect, I have always been exposed to art, movement, and the reality of music. I wasn't raised with musicians per se, but I grew up every day with the sound of rhythms and harmonies flooding my ear canals. It turns out, I've got a bit of the beat in my blood, as well. To this day, I am endlessly thankful that the tunes I was subjected to as an ignorant child were well selected and unique pieces of art by my parents. I'm still one of the few twenty somethings that I know of that can sing all the lyrics to Crimson and Clover or Young Moon. Sure, these aren't music history's most prized possessions, but that's just a sampling of the greatness I got to be a part of. Everything from Three Dog Night, CCR, Elvis, and the Beach Boys, to Boston, Journey, Chicago, Gloria Estefan, and Madonna was in my family's musical library. Not to shabby if I do say so myself.
 As I aged and felt the necessity to delve into my own musical adventure, I'm sad to say I lost sight of what was really important in the experience- the connection music makes with your soul. Corporate sell outs with matching outfits and less than fantastic songs themes replaced the musical fiber I was raised on. There is something to be said for the nostalgia even the worst of songs can create decades later, however, and I've gotten plenty of that.
 There will never be another era like the 90's, of that I'm sure, and a bit saddened by. For all of the garbage that came out of that blur of a decade, some true jewels were polished and shown off for the first time. Unfortunately some of the brightest faded before the world knew what it had. Thankfully, we've been left with a small sampling of the best talent of my childhood.
  One thing that did begin to change as I aged was the necessity to be at the origin of this magic. I HAD to be around instruments and vocals and organic musical happenings. I had a few friends that dabbled in rap culture and I (the very whitest of white girls) was enamored with it. I would lay around for hours listening to the artistic poetry of Tupac's lyrics and slowly fell in love with a culture I would never experience firsthand. For the first time in my life, I was exposed to the reality of life much harder than my own and appreciated the struggles from afar.
   I remember creating fake usernames and commenting on my friends' work in their music forums with really sincere comments, because it would have been weird-if not completely invalid- coming from me in person. It seemed so prestigious to create something as absolute and beautiful as music. The fluidity and need for on the spot creativity made me really develop an appreciation for rap. For some reason that was untouchable in the best way to me.
  And then I opened my eyes and looked around me. I realized that the music is everywhere, in everyone, to some extent. All we have to do is dig deep enough to feel something real-because that's where it's born. Music isn't an action or a process, it's a feeling that's been given audible flight.
  Now entering my mid twenties, I've long since come to realize that I am not below those that choose to express their musical interests and talents. In fact, I finally took the liberty to set mine free and dove into professional vocal lessons. Somehow, in a matter of a month, part of me was born through that experience. I've expanded my listening repertoire to literally every conceivable "genre" of music there is, only to find that there is no such thing as a genre, only music that fits your mood or not.  I'll never quit singing and listening, nor will I give up on the quest to expand my knowledge about one of life's greatest adventures. Music is in me and with me always. In a way I guess it defines part of myself. In my journey to find the roots of this beautiful thing, I've discovered fragments of me, littered along the way. Little did I know that as I traveled along, I was recovering pieces of history, left by those who have been lucky enough to know all that I have found and have yet to retrieve. May the musical conquest never end.