There is often times when I feel like I am being suffocated by an exorbitant amount of life, work, and responsibility. It is a never-ending cycle of turmoil, where I am the hamster running full speed in this wheel of tasks to complete, one often after another. Though, being a musician, music also has a role in this workload, there is a significant difference between the way I approach and synthesize the feelings of when I practice.

As soon as I walk into the practice room, I know exactly what I have to do. There is always something I can work on, and the refreshing feeling of having unlimited potential of learning sparks my motivation. It is quite interesting, considering that I dread lots of things in my life, just simply due to generalized anxiety. Music is not one of the things that I dread, though. There is, rather, a sense of tranquility even when I have a specifically challenging piece in front of me. This is because music helps me grow and flourish in multiple aspects of my life aside from intellectual pursuits.

Music is like sitting down across from my therapist; divulging the complexities of my life, laughing, crying, contemplating, and discussing things silently through the vessel of an instrument. Music is like jumping in my car and driving miles away from home, watching the sun set across the highway. Music is like wrapping myself into a warm blanket while the winds and rain torment the environment outside.

Emma