Music

I've realized there is a lot of music out there that is popular amongst different groups, making them not so obscure after all. I wish I knew more people who had similar taste in music as I did. Especially girl friends, so I can go to shows with them and it wouldn't be inappropriate. It's great going to shows with Danish, but you know it can be fun going with other people, too. I love discovering new music, and what's even more pleasant is when I learn someone likes the same song as I do. Music is meant to be shared, I think. It's a common ground people can have. For example, on the day of one of my clinicals where I've mentioned emotions ran high, I was taken aback and humbled by music and life. We're required to talk to and get to know the patients on the psychiatric unit, most of whom have various forms of mental illnesses such as schizophrenia and psychosis. During a game of Dominoes, one patient who had been talking to himself during the game and behaving quite irratically suddenly said, "We should turn on the radio." We all agreed and he proceeded to tune to a station. He set it to an 80s rock station and "Come Sail Away" by the Styx came on. To my surprise, he stood there and started belting out the words to the song! His eyes were closed as if he were concentrating intently (I imagine) on how the song flowed through him; he nodded his head to the beat of the rocking chorus: A gathering of angels appeared above my head/They sang to me this song of hope, and this is what they said/They said come sail away, come sail away/Come sail away with me. Then from next to me, the timid, overweight patient who was admitted for attempted suicide quietly joined in, all the while not taking her eyes off her domino pieces. I couldn't believe it...I felt that although these patients were internally tormented on a daily basis and their minds were not "normal," at one point in their lives that song appealed to their liking and made them feel good inside...as any song could to an individual. This sounds incredibly hippie-ish, I was in awe of how music brings us humans on a similar plane, no matter what we're going through or where we've been in life.