Music and Ritual

Music is something that is so important to people's lives and it has such an impact. Music forms a community and it brings people together in times of need. Whether you are celebrating something/someone or you are grieving, music helps make things better. 

One of the biggest celebrations that I have had in my life so far, was my high school graduation. I graduated during covid and my graduation was one of the few things that actually felt normal that year. Every year the graduating class gets to vote for the song that they think should be their song. I think that the song that we voted for was something that was very fitting for everything that everyone was going going through. The song that we voted for as our graduation song, really encompassed the lesson that covid taught us. Our graduation song was "I Lived" Covid taught us that you shouldn't take a moment for granted and that you should live your life to the fullest potential. Also this song encompassed our graduating class. We had all gone to school together for the last 12 years and we truly made so many different memories. We were all such important parts of each other's lives for 12 years, and at the day we didn't want to look back and have regrets about the time that we spent in High School. This tradition of picking our graduation song is something that is very important to the seniors because it allows for us to make our graduation of own and it makes something for us to remember.

A tradition that my school has is that the leadership class puts on the assemblies.  One of the big things that we do is we put together a dance to different types of songs. We do this when we are having different celebrations and we are trying to hype people up. The year I was in leadership, we put together a dance for our senior assembly. The senior assembly occurred to celebrate the seniors and all the accomplishments that they made throughout their time in high school. This dance was one thing to hype everyone up and bring people together.  It was also a great bonding event that occurred for my class, it brought us all together as we tried to learn and perfect this dance. We had a lot of laughs, and a few struggles because not all of us were the best dancers. Some people (mainly talking about myself) lacked coordination. However, it was something that brought us all together and it helped create amazing memories as we celebrated each other. 

Although I haven't gotten married yet, I have some ideas of how I want it to happen and the type of music that I want to play at it. I want the first song that my husband and I dance to, to be a country song. Country music is something that is really important to me and my family and we always have it at our family gatherings, so it is something that I want to have at my wedding. The specific country song that I want is "Nobody" by Dylan Scott. I just really like this song and it means a lot to me. Also the artist has special meaning to me. I really enjoy songs that have a lot of meaning, and this is one of those songs. It really makes me think about love and the love that you share with someone. 

I actually really enjoy the olympics and the music that gets played at it. Growing up I had this huge dream of being an olympic runner. It was one of my biggest dreams and I would talk about it all the time. When I was younger I would make myself fake medals and where them around the house. This was something that I really wanted to accomplish. I wanted to be under the shining lights, and I wanted to be listening to that music as the medal got put around my neck. However, I chose a different route and chose to continue my field hockey career instead. This is a decision that I am beyond grateful for choosing and I wouldn't change my decision for a moment. However, I would love to still attend the olympics and attend the opening ceremonies, because that is still a dream that I would love to still live.