Music has always been an understood facet of my life.

No really, I have been exposed to music since the day I was born (so I hear, I suppose I don’t know for sure).  When I was five years old I started taking piano lessons.  I remember the first day of lessons.  I sat down at my family’s Grand Piano as my teacher sat down next to me and with my big green eyes and curly light blonde hair I looked up waiting for her to show me how to be Bach.

Some will argue until they’re blue in the face that music directly correlates to a better academic understanding.  Personally, I agree, but to an extent.  I don’t think its a physical, chemical sort of thing that happens when a person picks up a clarinet she is automatically good at algebra.  But, I don’t think managing your time, sitting tediously at a piano, internalizing various meters, accomplishing through performance, dedicating an afternoon to one task or holding your own in an ensemble can be dismissed either.  Not that I’m biased or anything…

Now I don’t want to be one of those kids who rants and raves about his or her activity as if it were the greatest thing since ground coffee, but I can honestly say that I believe music has put me in the track I am in today.

My grandfather once told me to never give up on my music, as it will never give up on me.  Watch an 80 year old man diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease sit down at his keyboard and bang out a few melodies and then tell me that music has no bearing on mental health.  Watch a 3 year old girl whose mother exposed her to music early on in her life know her alphabet, sign language, numbers from 1-10 (English and Spanish) and shapes before her first day of Preschool and tell me that music has no bearing on early childhood education.

So maybe I’m not Bach.  Maybe I’ll never be Bach.  Or maybe I’m just waiting for my time to leave my mark on this world.

Only time will tell.