In my 18 years of being alive, Music makes me happier than anything else. Everything that has to do with music makes me extremely and undoubtedly ecstatic. Whether it be listening to a band's new record, making music with complete strangers, playing music with old friends, going to shows and discovering local bands and building connections with people in the scene, and especially meeting people in the business that have the same aspirations as I do. Musicians and artists alike have a sense of inspiration that holds them and drives them to be better than what they are now. Whenever I discover or meet a new band or musician that absolutely blows my musical mind I get an enormous sense of inspiration and contemplation on how and why I should get better. That process of questioning drives my musical ability forward and talking to people that see that drive and tell me it inspires them gives me incredible amounts of happiness. Being a drummer, seeing percussive instruments of all kinds makes me happy and interested. Learning about music and instruments from around the world, learning about different cultural music styles is so interesting and encaptivating to me. From the West African Boombei to the Tibetan Siva, instruments from all around the world are so unique and give a perspective to their culture, geography, and heritage that most other forms of medium cannot. All aspects of music: cultural, physical, mental, and spiritual make me so happy, and I couldn't see myself going for anything else to make my life out of.

Hello, my name is Michael Carroll and I am a senior at New Hanover High School. I am 17 years old and I am a percussionist within the New Hanover Marching, Jazz, and Concert band. My life, although no worse than some I'm sure, has not been the easiest. My father is an ex-addict and an intense alcoholic. My mother and sister are clinically depressed and struggle to get out of bed every morning. I love my family very much but there are problem's everywhere you look. I will be the first to attend college within my family. My father dropped out of high school before his junior year to work to help his mother with bills. My mom never went to college outside of high school because my grandparents are Jehovah's Witnesses and preached to my mother about school isn't important in "the new world." My sister graduated high school last year but didn't get accepted to any of the schools she applied to. She is struggling to save up money to start paying for college whenever she is able to. I was recently accepted into Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina and I couldn't be any more proud of myself. It took a lot of hard work and massive amounts of hardships but I persevered and made it in. My family never had an excess of wealth, My mother works 13-hour shifts 6 days a week and only makes under $38,000 a year. My father is currently incarcerated for driving while under the influence and violating probation. So the college money that will be paying for my tuition is coming out of my pocket only. Back in October 2020, my family got evicted from our house for little to no reason, we paid rent on time and we felt like we were good tenants. But we had 30 days to leave. We didn't have anywhere to go as a family. So we had to split up and live away from each other. My parents live out in Supply, North Carolina, and my sister and I live separately in Wilmington, North Carolina. With all of these struggles, I still found ways to pass my classes and get accepted into my dream school, App State. I plan on majoring in Music Industry Studies: Recording and Production and pursuing an undergraduate bachelor's degree. Music is a very big part of my life and I cannot believe in a future without playing, making, or appreciating music. I have had a couple of bands that have been given distribution deals through a Record label in North Carolina called Shirley Road Records. This music lifestyle is one that I don't believe I can live without, music has been my way of letting go of my hardships and start to truly have fun. I plan on starting my own record label in the future and having the resources to record and produce my own music as well as other projects at a very high level.