I spent 24 hours having a “music” free day for an assignment—and let’s just say it was not pleasant at all. I normally use TV, social media and music to escape the outside world. This 24 hours in particular I needed them the most.
To start off the 24 hours it was not too bad, however I found myself craving music and TV more because I knew I was unable to use it. I started with being extremely bored and eavesdropping on the world around me. When I got back to my dorm (or I should say my old dorm) I hung out with a friend and started to sing random lyrics, mixing a bunch of songs together and not making any sense. Even in my dreams I dreamt about listening to music in the car. I decided to listen to the same two songs on repeat and just choreograph because I am a dance teacher so technically I was “working.” I ended up getting bored of the songs and ended my day.
The next day, today, is when I found that I needed my “music” the most. Music and TV help me calm down and forget about the world for a bit, but I couldn’t do that today. To start, my dorm room ceiling is leaking so RPS told me I had to move out immediately. They gave me no help at all, they handed me the key and said “give it back by the end of the week,” so that was a HUGE damper on my day. I ended up taking maybe three hours to unpack my entire room and move it into a different room and unpack. During those three hours I listened to a lot of rattling from a cart that a very generous maintenance man let me borrow (hero number one). Next I ended up walking to work because it was nice out. I saw a lot of squirrels and they actually eat kind of loud, who knew? Anyways, I got to the studio where I work and I was able to hear music, to dance and to teach adorable kids. All was good in the world again, until I got the email from RPS saying I did not receive a parking pass. I have two off campus jobs, one of which I have to arrive at 5:30 a.m. This job is not very close by ESPECIALLY when it is cold out. At this point in my day I was done. I needed music or tv to take my mind off of things, but still couldn’t use them.
But my day didn’t end there. I had cheer practice right after until 10:00 p.m. so I walked over to the Campus Center to help move extremely heavy cheer mats all the way over to Church Street Center. It took the three of us about a half an hour to move one mat, when a generous facility guy told us he would call for help (heroes two, three and four). Two other men showed up with a pickup truck and they picked up the mats, loaded them in and drove them down to the building. I finally felt better once we started learning a dance and cheer; there was no music involved, but it was dancing, so I was able to come back to sanity.
As I am writing this I have Netflix playing in the background and an ice cream in the freezer calling my name. Moral of the story: I use “music” everyday to zone and chill, to choreograph, to just have fun and dance and much more. Thanks for coming to my TedTalk.