Fight Song

I love music. Music makes me happy. I’m not overpoweringly musical, but I’m deeply tied to the emotions of music. For me, it’s therapeutic.

I was lucky enough to teach at the same school that one of my children went to. While that was a blessing in so very many ways, it was especially fun to get to watch her grow from the sidelines. We also spent a lot of time together going back and forth to school. Many a morning we would sit in the parking lot at school, blast out a song on the car radio, and sing at the top of our lungs. Now that she is older I drive up to school by myself and the singing doesn’t have the same impact. It was sharing the experience that made it special.

I, being a child of the 80’s, did my due diligence and made sure my children were exposed to “good” music. Soundtracks from important movies like The Breakfast Club, Top Gun, Footloose and more. Tears for Fears is a family favorite. At a young age my kids were belting out, “Everybody wants to rule the world” from the back seat. My youngest just the other day said that “Love Shack” is the song that reminds her of summer. Clearly, I have aced the importance of teaching my children great music. 80’s music was fun. It wasn’t so angsty, at least not what I listened to. I’ve been 4 times to see Duran Duran in concert and I love hearing them every time. It’s fun music. It makes me happy when I’m done. It brings back happy memories of when I was a kid. When the phone would ring, my parents would hear a scream, and I would bound down the stairs and flip on MTV to see a Duran Duran video. (Yeah, I was pre-YouTube. You had to get it when you could).

Years ago I stopped buying as many “things” for my children for holidays. We started opting for experiences. I mean, who really needed one more Barbie or movie? So we looked for alternatives. One year my youngest got ice skating lessons. She ended up continuing skating for years. I took my oldest to important concerts like The Cheetah Girls and Miley Cyrus/Jonas Brothers. One Christmas present of One Direction tickets involved an all nighter because I had to go to camp the next day with 150 students and the drive took most of the night to get home. Last summer was Panic at the Disco, and last year for my birthday I got me and my girls tickets to Maroon 5. This year we went to see the play Waitress and my kids are going to Book of Mormon for my youngest’s 16th Birthday. And we look back and talk about these experiences fondly. I have no idea which Barbie doll my child got for her 5th birthday, but standing on the floor on the 14th row at the Miley Cyrus concert with them is something I will never forget. Not just because my back hurt from having to carry my youngest the whole time so that she could see over everyone standing, but because we laughed together. We had fun. Silly, goofy, sing at the top of your lungs fun. And that’s what I want to hold on to. 

Last, music empowers me. I look for songs that make me feel good because there are enough ugly things in the world. I could feed into them forever. I’m choosing not to. I want to feel positive. Feel strong. So when I’m feeling down it’s music I often go to. Fight Song by Rachel Platten was on repeat on my phone for the entire summer of 2015. Life was pretty uncertain for me at that point, but I knew what I had to do for my kids. This song gave me strength. Cheesy? Maybe. But as I tell my students if there is something that you do that makes you feel you learn better, do it. Lie on the floor to study. Listen to music. Draw pictures while you listen in class. Chew gum. I don’t care. If it works and you do better, do it again. At some point the psychological game becomes reality. You are doing better. You feel better. And it doesn’t hurt anyone or yourself. This seems like a no brainer to me. 

So today, go find a song. A song that every time you hear it you smile. That brings up a good memory. That makes you feel stronger. Happier. Then turn it up loud and dance to it. See, you feel better already. Don’t you? 😘