The Music Within Boom, Boom, Boom Zoom, Zoom, Zoom Tweet, Tweet, Tweet Beep, Beep, Beep I know the season just ended but what was your favorite part of football? Was it the clashing of pads or the screams from fans or was it the music from the band in the stands who never had their uniform on when it was time to be seen? The softness of their shoes when blasting music trying not to get caught by the “turf demon”. Even though we hear it all the time, are we really listening? If you’re like me, while you were speed walking to your classes did you hear the birds chirping? Did you hear the rain last night or did the wind cause a fright? With such an immersion in our own lives and phones do we forget the beauty in the world around us? I know most of you sing in the shower. I know there’s that tune that you just want to holler. Using your vocal cords like a chord in a song, trying to sing every note in the triad and even though it sounds like it, you’re usually not. It’s your ears playing tricks on you like it’s your heart. The heart, the big trickster. It speeds up and slows down. Think of when this class first began, knowing no one, being told you had to present, masking all fear with passion even though your heart feels like it’s crashin’ on waves and waves of fear and hope. Hope that you went to the bathroom before class that morning because at this point there was no running. Until the words flow and you feel the weight shift and you unwind and uplift and then the applause comes. Everyone is clapping. For me? Really? You sit back down, heart still pounding, but now you smile. That song from the shower blasting in your ears. Comfort. That is the feeling from within.

I plan to take up journaling. There are many times when I feel as though I have no one to talk to or that the things I want to talk about are too much of a burden to put on someone else. In those times, I would let those lingering thoughts and emotions cloud my judgment and my mind and burden myself more by holding them in. With the inclusion of journaling, I would be able to free those thoughts from my mind without the feeling of having someone know all of my thoughts. Journaling is also a way of allowing a consistent schedule in my life. Collecting my thoughts onto paper on a daily or weekly basis would help create a sense of stability even when times for me may be hectic. It would also help physically see the growth I would have throughout the week. In my psychology class, we had to do role-playing counseling sessions to see how it feels to be the helpee/client before becoming the helper. At the end of these sessions, the helper would summarize all of the points that were introduced throughout the session. This is what journaling would be like for me. It would be like summarizing the main points of my thoughts from that day or that week and putting them into a safe place for me to be able to reflect on at a different time. Creating a safe space for my friends is what I strive for in my room and for my presence to exude. I will do this by being an active listener to my friends. They always listen to me so I want to do the same for them. My phone is always on and I am always prepared to listen and talk about or do whatever they need from me. Living in a place alone is also helpful for my friends whenever they want to get away from their own homes because I have a place for them to go where they won't get bombarded with questions or confused and pitiful looks from parental figures or someone they don't trust. Making a point to have daily checkups on my friends and sending a kind and funny video to brighten their day just to maintain the feeling of an open door is the main goal. There was a point right after the midterms when all of my friends and I were completely drained and our communication was low because a lot of us separated for college, and one day I sent a video that talked about how draining that part of the semester was and we all had to laugh because we hadn't even realized we were all feeling the same way. Having a place where they can go to talk and having someone or a group to talk to when they need it is how I will create and maintain a safe space for my friends and any other students to manage their mental and emotional health.