Unit 7 assignment
Ashley Jones
Kaplan University
HM300-13

Music to most people is calming and others see it as a way to escape from reality. Personally, it is both. For every moment in life there is a song that fits perfectly for the current mood, there is a song that can also lift you out of that mood. Music has been one of my best friends. It always knows what to say and how I feel no matter if it is a song because I am hurting or a song that makes me dance. For every action or feeling, there is a lyric that sings and speaks exactly what you feel. I am the youngest of seven children. My mother birthed four but my father had a total of seven. I was always the cute kid that everyone loved. I was bright skinned with curly brown hair and hazel eyes. I was athletic yet hard working. Me and my siblings never really got along. I was always the “odd man out” so to speak. I never related to anyone in my family but I was happy being me. The choices I make today are still the same. I still could care less what someone else thinks of me. If I feel like dancing, I will dance. If I feel like singing, I will sing. I learned at a very young age to make myself happy. There is a song by Corinne Bailey Rae called Put Your Records On. It is about being yourself, letting your hair down and following your dreams. Being careless and free, living life and learning from your past experiences. In life things may get hard but you still have to push on even when you feel as though everyone is against you, be yourself. As a kid it was easy to live and do what you wanted because we were kids having fun and being happy. When we get older, that is a true test of emotion. When I hit my pre-teen and teenage years is when things took a turn for the worst. I had got my first job at the age of 12 cleaning night clubs and being paid under the table. My mother knew about my job but my siblings did not. My sister and I would fight like cats and dogs because she felt like my mother was giving me everything. The truth was, my sister was a trouble maker. My mother never really had time for me, I was always on my own to get things done and get to where I needed to be. Sometimes I felt as though I was hopeless and had nothing else to do but I had grown tired of arguing. We would fist fight and she would put me down telling me that I was hopeless. All through my teenage years I maintained a job and stayed in school. I was an athlete and very popular in school. I always wanted a close relationship with my sister and just to hear her say these things to me, she really didn’t know me but it made me feel hopeless. There is a song by Dionne Farris called Hopeless. I would most definitely make this the soundtrack to my adolescence. I was never the kid that had to neither try and fit in nor be a rebel, I relied on no one for anything and I was very independent. As time went on, I began to look up to her not as a role model but as someone I did not want to be. I did not become her. I am the only one of my mother’s children to graduate high school and continue to college. I am also the only one to serve this country and a United States Army soldier. Even though my adolescence was not the best, it was not all bad. In the times where I needed to be uplifted, I would listen to some gospel or a dancing song. I am not the most Christian person in the world but I try. There is a song in particular that every time I began to feel alone I would play. Smokie Norful is a gospel artist who sings a song titled I Understand. This song really just brings out the religious comfort. It assured me that I was not alone and that someone else understood that I felt hopeless and alone. I let me know that God had something greater for my life and that he was making me stronger for the rough road ahead and the hardships in life. Mary J. Blige, and r&b singer has a song called Work In Progress. This song explains that no one is perfect. Everyone may make mistakes but at the end of the day, no one is better than the next person and that everyone is a exactly a work in progress. I also listen to a lot of jazz music to keep my mind at ease or relax when I do not want to hear words and want to sort things out in my head. I love this artist by the name of Boney James and a record label named Hidden Beach Recordings. Happiness for me can come from any form of music; even sad songs. The sad songs help me realize where I have come from and where I want to go. Within the last few years, I have begun to listen to Reggae. I love to listen to this record called Champion by Buju Banton. This song just tells the story of a champion and how they have overcome all of the obstacles that have been in the way and still manage to remain victorious. Music is something that is great for the soul. Whatever genre of choice there is a song out there that can make anyone feel better or can began the soundtrack to a person’s life. Music can express what one may not be able to or may not find the words to. Anything from love to disappointment, there is a song out there. Music is a like a drug, some days I need music to get me through while other days I am perfectly fine. I take my music everywhere with me and so do my children. I love music; it’s my drug.