by Matthew Leighton-Jones ‘25

I wasn’t a big music listener in freshman year, and I think that’s one thing that made it worse than my other high school years. Since then, listening to tons of different genres of music helped me figure out what music I love most and also helped me figure out a little more about myself. I started playing guitar because of this new love for music, and guitar distracted me from the anxiety brought onto me by school.

I struggled with having no motivation to do any work throughout my high school years. Playing guitar was a way to escape from all the worry that came along with me putting off assignments instead of doing them when I needed to. It became even more stressful because I took a lot of AP classes but oftentimes the pressure to fulfill my potential is actually what got in the way of me doing as well as I could. But listening to music whilst doing work was the one way to help me get it done. Rather than being a distraction, music often gave me focus. This is probably because it was calming.

Playing guitar was sometimes a distraction from doing work, but I think that overall it helped me. It was a brand new hobby that gave me lots of joy, just like listening to music did. Even now as I’m typing this column, I’m listening to some of my favorite artists. Elliott Smith, Death, Gulch, Brutalismus 3000, Dinosaur Jr., Weiland, and Tool, to name a few. It’s hard to imagine not having the music.