When I was around 6 years old, my mom asked me what instrument I wanted to play. She had a philosophy that all children should participate in at least one sport and one musical activity at any given time, and was determined to nurture a well-rounded student, one who was not only active, but musical. Free-thinking. I started piano lessons when I turned 7. My mom revealed to me recently that my piano teacher was a very different kind of teacher than she had growing up. When she took lessons, my mom would mess up and her teacher would hit her knuckles with a pencil until she got it right. My mom ended up quitting piano after only a couple months. She told me how kind my teacher was, and how lucky I was to be taught by someone so patient, so forgiving, so willing to take certain sections slowly and with care, but also eager to push me forward into harder territory if I needed it. I ended up flourishing under piano lessons, leading to the effect music has on me today. Playing piano gives me an outlet to explore and mediate my emotions. Being a teenager, it gets easy to let yourself drown under the weight of your feelings instead of trying to help yourself get better. I think that, because of the struggle I've faced with learning my music, I understand how to get past hard tasks and work towards betterment. During the hardest times of my life, when I couldn't possibly get out of bed, when I stared off the balcony and thought "it can't hurt that bad...", when I tried to no avail to feel anything other than all-encompassing emptiness, music is what gave me a reason to keep going. When I sat down at the piano and let my fingers flow with the music I wanted to create, it gave me space to take another breath. The keys understood me, just like they understood its owners of the past, and with its music took my tumbling feelings on the wings of song and flew them up, up, to land amongst the stars. Music has saved me on multiple occasions, and gave me tools with which I enter the world confidently: the ability to encounter, recognize, and overcome obstacles. In pursuing a music career I am determined to help foster this same surety of self in other students, or in other children, teenagers, and adults who would benefit from the strength to keep going when the times get too tough to handle.