When music is by my side, I feel no pain.....

Well, I told you guys about my love of reading, now let me tell you about my love of music....I have been listening to different genres of music, since I was a very small child. My family had that long console-record player that was about 6 feet long...I think some of you guys know what I'm talking about. We used to play records on Sundays. We would blast the music so loud. The smaller kids would dance outside while the older kids sat inside, talking about anything and everything...but my fondest memory of where music took me was in the 6th grade. I was an honor student and back then, we honor students were given the option of taking an advanced english class or a creative writing class. You guys know which one I took...and so the first day of class, our creative writing teacher introduced himself, and began explaining the reason why he started the class. I didnt pay much attention to him, and he noticed. He told me to pay attention or else I would be kicked out of the class and led back to the advanced english class. So we started our teacher/student rapor on a sour note. His first assignment was decoding songs. I rolled my eyes as he questioned our small class about the meaning of a few songs and no one seemed to get them right. I dont even remember what songs he wanted us to interpret, but he peaked my interest. It was Friday, and he told us that we had to go home and pick a song to interpret, then to bring either a tape recording of it, or an album and our written interpretation of the song to class on Monday. I went home, frantic to find something easy to listen to, just to get the assignment over with. I hated the music that my brothers listened to. They all seemed too loud and noisy and just plain obnoxious. So on a Saturday night, when I knew they'd all be out, I went into my second to oldest brother's room and looked through his album collection...I saw Styxx, nahhh, The Rolling stones...no.....Jimi Hendrix, heck no, he scared me!!! (now that I think back, I was the crazy one...) and then I spotted a band that I hadnt heard of before....Steely Dan.....hmmm....interesting name.....I put it on the record player and began to listen....and I fell in love with Donald Fagens smooth lyrics and the jazzy sound of the songs...I chose my song and wrote my interpretation down quickly....so as not to lose my train of thought.
Monday came and everyone took turns playing thier songs. I have to say, after hearing their interpretations, I kind've had more respect for the different genres that were expressed that day. Then it was my turn to play the song I chose. I put the tape into the player, and the song started to play....know what song I chose? Deacon Blues....my teacher raised an eyebrow at that one and sat still for a moment.....but I swore,that during the middle of that song, I saw him tap his foot it!! I read my interpretation to him and he looked at me and asked me which one of my older family members had written my paper....I told him I wrote it, and I had the rough draft to show him. He made me pull it out, looked at it, then gave it back..The next day, as we were reading a few pages out of a book, he handed us back our grades for the interpretations...On the top of mine, he wrote "Great job, you picked one of my favorite tunes!" and wrote a smiley face next to it...I swear he was alot nicer to me after that day....But I have not stopped exploring different types of music...to this day, I still surf different sites on the internet looking for my next favorite song...and I have many...I have to give credit to that teacher, for exposing my mind to things outside of the box, outside of my norm...and even though I dont remember his name, I remember his message. My latest obsession..Armik, an Iranian-Armenian flamenco composer who plays classical flamenco guitar. He is by far the best flamenco guitarist that I have ever heard and if you like that latin flair infused into your classical guitar music, then I'd highly recommend you look him up. I also listen to jazz, r&B, classic rock, and yes, some hip-hop and rap...not all rap is bad..not all rap is about putting people down..you'd be mildly surprised at how well the context of the lyrics is expressed.... I wish that those types of classes were allowed into our kids curriculum...we need classes like that to empower our children and help them to see whats outside of their sheltered worlds.....