Assignment 3- Katie Demos

"Give me your phone and your headphones. You learn most when you're out of your comfort zone." I handed over what was asked of me to my dad. At the time, I didn't realize what he was talking about. With the typical teenage pomp, I huffed and stared out the window. Driving through Greece, rocky hills and olive trees met my eyes; and now silence met my ears.
Ever since my family began to drag me and my equally reluctant brother on road trips, I've learned to pass my time with music. Whatever fits the scenery and the mood can entertain me for hours on end. And perhaps this is where a great deal of my love for music actually originated from-- the connections I could make to images and memories-- many tied to places we visited. So by instinct, various opera overtures became my music of choice for the Greek country land.
Yet now my dad encouraged me to leave that all behind.
To add some background, my father and I visited Greece this summer to meet overseas family and learn some about my culture and its history. It's an opportunity anyone teenager would have jumped at-- as did I. But my dad wanted this trip to be different and special for me.
My father's love of music runs deep in his blood as it does in mine, and yet there he was encouraging me to partake in complete silence. For the first day of this unbearable abstinence, I felt vulnerable, naked, and awkward. Every picture of Greek life became dull and unmemorable. However after the course of about two days, although unaccompanied by beautiful melodies, I began to feel the environment with different, more in depth senses. Although I wasn't listening to a Rossini masterpiece, I was listening to the city, the language, the mountains, the water.
It's important to step back. To listen beyond what you want to hear. To listen to voices, poverty, exchange, and human interaction. Although music is obviously incredibly important to me, so much of life is listening to the natural sounds of your environment. And through the sounds of life, come the beautiful sounds of music that I love.