Before I was passionate about martial arts, my main hobby was music. The first job that I wanted was to be a rock star, so I began playing guitar as soon as my parents let me. I played in a handful of bands over the years, learned from many different instructors, and listened to as much music as possible. I still love music, I’ve had to take a short break from playing for various reasons, but I still feel a deep connection to music. Oddly enough, if I’m not listening to it, I have background music playing in my head at almost all times.
One day I was listening to music in the car with my best friend, Em. She was saying I have a really weird taste in music, and to be fair she’s right, I like a wide variety of genres. But what she thought was weird, was some of the songs I like have lyrics that make no sense, or wouldn’t be something that I could relate to. This got me thinking, I don’t really even listen to the words when I listen to music. I love hearing all the layers of instruments and sounds; I listen to the melody of the lyrics for sure, but don’t actually think about the words themselves and what the singer is trying to convey. For Em, it’s the complete opposite. She listens to music solely for the lyrics, she will even listen to a song that doesn’t necessarily have any interesting instrumentals, because she likes the words so much. I was astonished when I heard this; for someone who loves music so much, I didn’t realize that not everybody listens to music in the same way.
This just goes to show that for any problem, situation, or activity, there are many different perspectives that people could view it from. Keep an open mind when you hear somebody with a different outlook, you may learn more about yourself or the situation considering somebody else’s perspective.
