I studied music for the majority of my life before deciding to study journalism at Seton Hall. I grew up singing – and probably annoying – my mom and dad by putting on shows in the living room once a week. When I was old enough, I started auditioning for musicals at the neighborhood Catholic school I attended. I joined the Pennsylvania Girlchoir, a statewide girl’s singing group, and when it came time to choose a high school, I begged my mom to let me audition for the Philadelphia High School for Creative and Performing Arts (CAPA). I was accepted to CAPA’s vocal music program with a concentration in classical voice. It was there that I learned more about myself than I think I ever will in college, found one of my true passions, and learned what it meant to listen and to feel.

For the longest time, I was planning on applying to colleges as a voice major and pursuing a career in vocal performance. That was the plan. It always had been. Around my junior year of high school, I started to gain an interest in news. I had an absolutely fabulous AP English Language teacher that year and he stressed to us the importance of staying informed. I always had been – both of my parents were adamant about watching the news every night before dinner – but it wasn’t until I was seventeen that I truly became interested in news. During the summer of 2015, around the time I started thinking about colleges seriously, I decided to major in journalism. I love my major, and I always will, but music has, and will always have my heart.

Music has taught me the importance of expressing yourself and not being afraid of your emotions. When I first heard Claude Debussy’s “Nuit D’etoiles,” I literally started crying in class, but instead of walking out of the room out of embarrassment, I was comforted by my peers. That’s the kind of community music fosters. The people I met while I studied music formally were some of the most traumatized and abused people I have ever met, and despite this, they were never hard. They were kind. They were compassionate. They listened. I never felt anything but accepted in that environment. I had the opportunity to sing with Bon Jovi and the Philadelphia Orchestra. I met Grammy winners. I had such a positive high school experience and I realize how rare that is, and I’m grateful.

I will always love singing and I will always respect music for its ability to connect and evoke. Music is something that has the ability to transcend generations, cultures, and emotions. You are going to meet thousands of people in your life, and they are all going to be different. The one thing that connects them, however, is that they all have a favorite song.