Being a musician has impacted my life in so many different ways from learning who my true friends are to learn the hardest music and feeling great when I finally get it down. Having been involved with music and developing as a flutist from the third grade until my junior year of college, I have learned that music changes, and it changes who you are as a person.

You become more aware and appreciative of music in films or in musicals. There is a special vibe that all musicians give out when they’re around other musicians. It’s a sense of comfort and safety. You don’t have to worry about them making fun of you or discouraging you. It's like when your favorite cousin comes to those awkward family reunions, and you finally have someone you can talk to and not feel weird.

Music has helped my memorization skills. Having to learn and memorize music for either a recital or a marching band show, I’ve had to memorize music. But it also helps for memorizing things in other areas of my life like times tables in elementary school to physics equations in high school.

Being a musician has helped me realize the true meaning of patience. Going through bars and bars of music over and over and over seems a little redundant, but you have to have a very strong level of patience to not completely lose it, throw it down and call it quits. In music, there is no such thing as perfection; you can only come close. People aren’t robots, you can’t program humans to be perfect and to sound perfect. You will mess up. You will get things wrong, but that is what makes you a better musician and those are the little things that make you humble and appreciative of the art you're creating.

Being involved with music in school you realize you always have a family. A very musical family who is always there not just to help you with rhythms but other events in your life. When your life seems to stop, you can always count on those true friends to be the ones to help you through everything. Music also teaches you that you’re not the best; there are always people who are better than you. But that should never discourage you from setting goal after goal to push yourself to be the best you can be.

At then end of the day, music is always there for you. All I have to do if I'm having a bad is plug in my headphones, and my day is turned around. Music has the ability to change people and bring people together, even if they don't understand the language. Music brings people together regardless of race, religion, politics or social standings.

I can thank my parents for giving me the opportunity to reach out and experiment with a musical instrument, and I can also thank all my music teachers throughout the years dealing with my terrible tuning and a couple musical breakdowns, but they're the people who helped me become the musician I am today. And special thanks to all of the wonderful musical friends I've made along the way. I couldn't love being a musician more, especially with you all by my side.