Every year for the past three (and most likely four years too), I have been in the top .05% of listeners to this one band on Spotify, My Chemical Romance. I spent about 350 hours last year on Spotify alone, not even considering the concerts or car radios. 

       At home, I have my own stereo that is able to hold three  CD's and burn them too. It can play cassettes and make them, and it can also be used as a speaker system that I can stream music from my phone into. 

       When I was in 8th grade, I honestly wouldn’t have survived if not for music. It made me forget my problems and briefly escape reality. I burned through so many earbuds that year it was insane. 

        Now I’m a Junior in high school, and I still religiously listen to music, not to escape so much anymore, but to enjoy the meaning behind them. Especially listening straight through different conceptual albums that have stories told within them, those are special to me. For example, Danger Days : the true lives of the fabulous killjoys by MCR is one of my favorites. 

       I play percussion in my school’s band, I play snare drum in marching band, and I picked up bass guitar last November so I could play in my school’s extracurricular jazz band. 

       The way that everyone’s playing fuses together into something that is not only sounding good to the audience but also giving us experience playing our instruments. It feels like the missing piece of a puzzle going into place, a completion of dedication. 

        I’ve made so many friends through all these programs, and without it I would never have gotten the chance to know them. 

        Every other sentence we speak to each other is about something new that they are trying to learn on their instrument or some new development about our favorite bands.  

                                                        I love it all.

        And concerts. I love everything about them, no matter the venue, the weather, the time, or honestly even the band playing. 

        I’ve been to venue’s where I was three feet away from the stage and got to talk to the band between sets in this smaller, cramped room, to a stadium tour that I had nosebleed seats at.

         I go to concerts whenever I can, even if I have school the next day or miss a day so I can travel to the venue. I take any opportunity I can get. 

        The strangers next to me at any concert soon become my friends. I’m meeting a person that I met at a concert this summer at another one in a few months to dance together again! 

                                                       I’m very lucky. 

        In all of these cases, it's the music that brings me closer to others. The opportunities that have been given to me in these experiences are irreplaceable and invaluable. I don’t know what kind of person I would be right now without music. I wouldn’t even know where to start.