So it's 2:50am and here goes my second attempt at writing my first post in over a month, the first one was outstanding and I loved how it came out, but technology hates me so no, now I have to dedicate 45 more minutes of my beauty sleep to y'all so enjoy me spill my guts for just a bit longer on this day, whether you're reading this on July 31st 2015 or any day after.
Before you start attacking me for not writing, behold! I have a mediocre excuse! Honestly I was a Prefect at the Portsmouth Abbey School Summer Program and chasing after 7th-11th graders gets tiring, plus the wifi in the dorms turns off at midnight cutting most of my writing sessions short. But all and all I left the summer program last week reaffirmed in my love of teaching, mentoring and supporting the next generation, also got a lot of one on one time with some of the teachers from other schools who help in the summer program. I hope to do it again next year and make even more memories with a new group of kids who impact me the same way this year's kids did.
Besides that I also worked the Newport Folk Festival last weekend with got me within twenty feet of James Taylor which was ones of the coolest experiences of my life, he played his classics and I almost cried, it was beautiful. Starting in 4 hours I'll be headed back to Newport to work the Jazz festival for the next three days which I hope will be just as if not more rewarding.
Before I started writing tonight I thought I had a couple really good ideas to write about: "What teaching means to me" or "how someone can change" but I decided on something totally different because of a TV show. Now I'm not sure how many people know this because I don't go around advertising it but I am a long time fan of the show Glee. I watched it for a few years and was pretty invested in it, but stopped following it after Corey's death and tribute episode. Really for me it wasn't directly connected to that event but that event coincided with a lot of important times in my senior year, bottom line is I'm behind. So last week when I realized the last season was on Netflix I decided to finish it. And honestly having just finished it tonight I must say I was a little disappointed with how they handled the remainder of season 5 shifting straight to New York and ignoring a lot of the new kids and how they then removed that part of the cast all together in the next season. I know the writers were really just grabbing at straws but I wanted to see a little more about new kids, I don't know. But I wasn't really the lack luster final twenty or so episodes that made me write tonight, it was the outstanding Finale. Maybe it was because they lowered my expectations or if they just did a good job, but the time skips and epilogue endings to all the characters were as close to what I could have wanted as possible and the closing scene was probably one of the most fitting ones I've ever seen and it delivered a message that really resonated with me.
The message was that Glee at it's core was a group not about winning but about seeking the joy in the music. And it really made me think of why I have such an affinity for music. And it took me a little while to come up with an answer and I'm still not completely convinced of my own answer but I gave it a shot. Deep deep down in places I'm not crazy about talking about I'm a romantic and some may even say hopelessly so. And I think music speaks to that idea in everyone. Because although music is complex and layered it describes for us a world in which things are much more emotionally vibrant and powerful. You can hear and feel emotion so powerfully through music that it can contact your soul in ways other things can't dream of. I the history of all the shitty advise I've given people among them have been phrases such as "ignore it" "it'll pass" and my personal favorite "just stop doing it". Now these are really stupid pieces of advise from a guy who 90% of the time has no idea what he's talking about but the way I see it, I'm a pretty strong guy emotionally speaking so have course rough ways of handling problems. Most people need more help with them. What music does is it lends an invisible hand through your headphones to catch you when you fall, pick you up when your down and give you a pat on the back when your back on you feet. Music is specific enough so that everyone gets something different from every lyric, but universal enough that if you play a song millions of people around the world know it and can sing together, So yeah, music fucking wild stuff huh?
Anyway it's getting really late now and I need some form of beauty rest. So whenever your enjoying this post, thanks for reading and have a good day. You didn't have to read this whole thing but you did and that kinda cool. A reminder that it's 3:26am and this post is less spellchecked than the first one, sorry. Thanks for sticking around so here's your reward, 2 recommendations and a mini game.
"First Day of My Life" Bright Eyes
"Brand New Day" Joshua Radin
John Mayer
1. "Dreaming with a Broken Heart"
2. "Heart of Life"
3. "Half of my Heart"
4. "Waiting on the World to Change"
5. "No Such Thing"
6. "Vultures"
7. "Heartbreak Warfare"
8. "Gravity'
9. "Who Says"
10. "I'm Gonna Find Another You"
See You Around.
