Oh, the smells. The aroma of spaghetti and meatballs- a nine year old's favorite meal, especially if it was one we seldomly had- enveloped the house with the Italian spices infused in the jarred Ragu sauce I dearly loved. Thinking back on it now, I don't know why my father didn't make this meal more often, as spaghetti is a cheap meal, especially for a single father with every government assistance program under his belt. Even then, we couldn't afford "real food," so our diet was mostly TV dinners. We had everything except for financial stability. We were always worried about our next meal and keeping up with the rent and the electricity payments, but my dad made the best out of those hard times. The loss hit me before it even occurred. Death is not an easy thing to handle, especially for an eleven year old. Once hearing my dad had lung cancer, the little bit of hope I had went right out the window. As his main caretaker, I stayed up late into the night to make sure my dad was comfortable and well tended to. When it was time to go to school, I'd stay home and tell him "I'm" sick" when, in reality, I was trying to spend as much time with him I had left as possible. After he passed away in 2017, I went to go live with my aunt and uncle. The weight of stress and responsibility instantly lifted off my shoulders; I finally had time to grieve. To help with the process, I turned to the one thing I love: music. It became my therapy; I had found my purpose: to express my feelings and tell my stories through song, hoping that one day it'll be someone else's therapy as it was mine. Loss is not my friend, nor is it my enemy, but throughout my life, it has taught me many life lessons. The most important one I learned i this: when you experience a great loss, you have a choice. You can either allow it to weigh you down and consume you, or you can turn that grief into a beautiful set of wings, embrace it with all that you are and SOAR! I chose the latter. My father was a fighter. He fought cancer valiantly and, although he did not win, I will forever be inspired by his immesnse strength and unconditional love. Instead of allowing my grief to hold me down, I've decided to harness into a weapon of mass potential and use it for good, and to stand at the front lines of a war beyond physical and mental health. My experience, I know, is nothing new; everyone experiences loss at least once in their life. That being said, it is not my goal to receive pity, but to share my story in hopes that it will inspire and motivate those in a similar circumstance to push through. Use this grief, and whatever your feeling as fuel for your dreams and FIGHT for what you want to achieve. I also want those experiencing loss right now to know that they are not alone and that there are people that love you. I love you and admire your strength and courage during the hard moments. To conclude, know that it's okay not to be okay. Stay strong! Thank you to Cat Zingano for this beautiful opportunity to tell my story!

As a bookworm and someone who owns 102 books (I counted) and reads way more than that, it is challenging to choose a single book for everyone in the world to read. Having not read every book in the world makes this decision even more difficult. However, based on what I have read, I think one book should be Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens. Where the Crawdads Sing is an extraordinary coming-of-age novel about a young girl named Kya Clark who lives in the marshlands with her family, who will abandon her throughout the novel. Her father, a raging alcoholic, sticks around for a little while after Kya's mother and siblings run away. In the meantime, her father is completely oblivious to the world around him, not even home most of the time spending a majority of it at the local bar. Eventually, he leaves and Kya is left alone in the wilderness to survive on her own with only the inhabitants of the marsh as her companions. When a murder takes place in town, the quiet people of Barkley Cove on the coast of North Carolina, are shaken by such a tragedy and are quick to suspect Kya "The Marsh Girl" Clark of the murder. Kya gets thrown into a twister of events: a trial, a love affair, abusive relationships, and so much more. Despite its beautifully twisted plot, the moral of Owen's book is integral to why this book is my favorite. This story is not just about a girl with a messy family, wrapped up in a love affair and on trial for a murder she didn't commit. Kya's story addresses many hardships that go unnoticed in our lives. Due to her family and impoverished background, Kya is quickly suspected of a crime, judged by the townspeople, and excluded from the community. I believe if everyone in the world read this book, people would be less inclined to judge others before they get to know their full story. Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens has been a great inspiration and I recommend everyone to read this novel. I hope those who read this book adore it as much as I did. The movie inspired by the novel is also streaming on Netflix.

I have been a die-hard Swifty since I was 9 months old when Taylor Swift released her first song "Tim McGraw." My mother, who was probably one of the first people to listen to it, and to my father's delight, had the song on repeat for weeks on end. He used to tell me how she would play that song in the kitchen while cooking, in the car, and trying to put me down at night. We became official Swifty's the night of October 25, 2006, the day after Taylor released her first album. Eighteen years later, I have an entire playlist dedicated to all of her songs and songs she's co-written for other artists! Eight years since her crossover to pop, Swift hinted that she would be re-releasing her first six albums, setting out on the journey to recover rights that Scooter Braun acquired from her. Ever since this announcement, I have been eagerly waiting for Swift to release 1989 (Taylor's Version.) Now that it's finally here, I listen to it everywhere I go: I listen to it at the beach, in my car, and even cleaning my house. Will I ever get tired of this album? I think not. Picking a song off of this album has been a very difficult decision, considering that I resonate with a majority of Swift's songs. However, if I had to pick a song from 1989 (Taylor's Version) to represent my year, "Bad Blood" would be the top song on the "My Life So Far in 2023-24" playlist. Even though Bad Blood was on her original 1889 album, I couldn't think of any other song that encompasses my life so far. Bad Blood tells a story of betrayal which I've learned to know very well. This song is not only a bop, but it got me through a best friend's betrayal that affected my life to a painful degree. The second half of the opening lyrics "Now we got problems/ and I don't think we can solve 'em/ you left a really deep cut/ 'cause baby now we got bad blood HEY" describes my reaction with how I reacted when my best friend of four years accused me of lying over little things, but she went to the extreme to accuse of lying about how my parents passed away. After that, I broke off our friendship. My parents are a very sensitive topic and instead of asking me about it, she accused me of lying. "Did you have to ruin/ what was shining now it's all rusted." This experience has taught me many life lessons; it has taught me to be careful with wh I confide in and who I trust. It taught me how easily someone can stab you in the back. It's also taught me to not tell someone my entire life story unless I am positively sure they will be in my life for a very long time. This experience also made it easier for me to make friends because I am able to see through people a lot better to watch for red flags that may illustrate that this relationship may not be a positive one. Will I ever get tired of Taylor Swift's new album 1989 (Taylor Swift's Version)? I think not!

I can not think of a time when music wasn't a part of my life. It is engraved in my soul. So deeply rooted that it's become my identity, my calling, and my passion. However, it wasn't until later in life that I reached an epiphany that music is more than just lyrics with an instrumental; it makes me believe in magic. It is my vibrational medicine. Music can heal on all levels and, most importantly, it's a universal language that brings us all together. That is when I fell in love with the arts. I started seriously getting into music after my father lost his battle with stage four lung cancer. At such a young age, I had no idea how to cope with this depressing time except for music. During the long nights when I would get little sleep from taking care of him, I would turn the radio onto my father's favorite rock station. We would sit in silence, listening to the lyrics of Steven Tyler, Kurt Coban, and Freddie Mercury. Music became my therapy during those melancholic moments in my life, substituting dark times with strong bonds and beautiful memories I will cherish forever. After I moved in with my aunt and uncle in 2017, I had a difficult time adjusting to my new environment and making friends at my new school. With all these sudden heart-wrenching changes in my life, and despite going to therapy, there was a drowning silence that consumed my spirit. If there is anything that I learned in my grief, is that you can blast music as loud as you want, but silence can be the loudest noise of all. I couldn't fill the silence for a long time until I discovered the art of songwriting. Songwriting is not only my form of self-expression, but it finally filled that deafening silence that consumed me for years. I realized that the more I wrote, and played, the more I consumed myself with this positive force. I taught myself how to play the piano and sing to go with my creations. This whole emotional journey has taught me that music and songwriting are the most vulnerable, revealing acts a musician, or anyone, can do. It has worked wonders. I believe that music is medicine. Without it, we would live in the most mundane place in the universe. After high school, I plan on auditioning for the TV show "American Idol" with hopes that I will become a signed artist so I can share my songs with the world so that my songs can be therapy for someone else as it was for me. Realistically, I want to pursue working my way up to becoming a radiologist and a certification in athletic training. I still plan to keep music in my life, and perform wherever and whenever I can. Music has opened a plethora of opportunities that I never thought were available. Whatever the world has install for me, I will embrace it with open arms. I hope those who read this are inspired to continue their love for the arts. Whether it is music, art, dance, etc, keep pursuing your dreams and never give up.

Music is in attendance everywhere we go. Music has been in existence since the dawn of man; a universal language used to express emotion and tales through lyrical compositions and melodies. In past times, religious leaders hailed praises of deities and mythological beings to capture the essence of how they came to be. Since the day you are brought into this world, you are exposed to sounds: The sound of your parent's voice, birds whistling in the trees, and music being heard in every mall and restaurant you enter. I was exposed to a wide variety of genres of music at a young age. From Bach's Goldberg Variations to the smooth jazz of Billie Holiday and head-banging Metalica. Music has been my happy place in times of despair, acting as a form of therapy. It has wrought upon me an epiphany that music is more than words and complex melodies In the fall 0f 2016, I received the heartbreaking news that my single father was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer. At any age, especially at the age of ten, this is not news anyone wants to hear. I found no comfort during the time I had remaining with my dad as I watched the cancer eat away and deteriorate his health, except for spending time with him and music. During the long nights where I would get little sleep from taking care of him, I would turn the radio onto his favorite rock station and we would sit in silence, listening to the lyrics of Steven Tyler, Kurt Coban, and Freddie Mercury. Music became my therapy during those melancholy moments of my life. It brought me closer to my dad, strengthening our bond through music, and making memories I will cherish forever. After a long, brave fight, he passed away in 2017. After he passed away, my aunt and uncle became my guardians. Music taught me to always cherish memories and helped me view the world as a place of love and I've learned to appreciate my life. After my father lost his battle with cancer, I began to feel the great toll his absence left in my life. My aunt and uncle tried very hard to fill the void in my heart. I tried counseling, I went out with friends, and I tried to continue to live a normal life, but the grief from losing him was unbearable. To soothe my anxiety, I would hum tunes I heard throughout my childhood. These melodies would evolve into something of my own, leading to my discovery of the art of songwriting. Songwriting opened a plethora of ideas and doors to new regions of my creativity. Most importantly, it became my therapy, my expression, and my new passion, and opened my mind to the realization that music is more than words with an instrumental or a compositional piece. Those works are other people's emotions. It is other people's form of therapy as well. Writing music filled the black hole in my life. It was like a ray of sunshine after weeks of rain. I realize that I am not the only individual experiencing these emotions. They are what make us human. I have a goal that one day, I will release my music out into the world so that hopefully one day it can be someone else's therapy as it was mine. It has shown me that everybody has flaws. It is the reason why I, as well as everyone else, should love everyone because they're human. Nothing less.