The Power of Song

Singing, it can be as simple as that.  Songs can allow you to forget, you can relate, or sometimes just dance the night away.  When you are down, sometimes all you need is a good song to bring you back up.  Music can be magical, if you let it be.

You know what I’m talking about when I say that everyone has the favorite song, the song that when it comes on you forget about all your problems and everything bringing you down.  When the music comes on you drop everything, turn up the volume on the stereo and break out singing and dancing.  The minute it comes on you forget why you were crying and just let go for three minutes.

There are also those songs that seem to tell your life story.  You can sit there and listen to the words and think, “That was written about me.”  You might break out singing or just sit there and listen, it might bring tears to your eyes or make you remember happy times, whatever it is it is telling your story.

Then there are the songs that the minute they come on you just break out dancing.  They might not have great lyrics but they have just the right beat, just the right tempo to break it down.  Those are the songs you listen to at night when pulling all-nighters and trying to stay awake.  Those are the songs you listen to with friends well laughing the night away.

No matter how you see music, it can be magical.  It can help you forget, remember, or just get down.  Music is everything, even if you don’t realize it.

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Advanced Placement Examinations

            AP Exams. Yikes! I said it.  In case you forgot, the annual exams starts tomorrow and if you are one of those people who took AP Environmental Science, Psychology, or Chemistry you have the unlucky first day testing.  If that happens to be your first AP Exam I have some tips for you from an old timer.

1.      Study.  If you have an exam tomorrow, like I do, it is basically too late to do this now.  You could try going through and making sure you remember the large topics but it is going to be almost pointless now.  If you have a little more time left, start studying today, not tomorrow, but today.  Get a study book and split it up by how many days you have left before the exam, but leaving the night before the exam open.

2.      Know the timing of all your exams.  You don’t want to think you have more time than you really do.  The best idea would be to take a practice exam so you know exactly what it feels like to have minimal time.

3.      Sleep.  Hopefully that is a duh thing, but just in case, I decided to include it in the tips.  I’m not talking about just the night before either; make sure you get ample amounts of sleep a few nights leading up to the exam.

4.      Eat a good breakfast.  This is something that you are supposed to do every day, but if you are like me you usually don’t.  However, the day of the exam make sure that you do eat breakfast.  You will do much better on your exams if you aren’t sitting there thinking about how hungry you are, and it will help keep you from getting tired and stay energized during the exam.

5.      Don’t drink a lot the morning of the exam and avoid coffee.  You are probably asking yourself why I would say to avoid coffee, but hopefully the drinking part makes sense.  However, caffeine runs through your system faster than say water, so drinking it will have to make you use the restroom very soon after you start the exam.

6.      Leave for your testing site with plenty of time.  Your exam will either be starting right during morning rush hour or during lunch hour.  You don’t want to get stuck in traffic and be late.  Also remember this is the time for construction so make sure you know which roads may be closed.  Once the doors are closed to the testing site they will not let you in, so don’t be late.  It will be better to arrive early rather than late.

7.      Go to the bathroom when you arrive at the testing site before taking your seat.  You want to make sure that you won’t need to go as soon as the testing is done, all the tests I believe are timed and you don’t want to waste any of the valuable time in the restroom.

I know your school will probably give you their own set of tips, along with all of your different teachers.  These are just what I do and have seemed to work for me the last couple of years.  Most of all, I wish all of your good luck on all of your exams.

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"Crime is Pride"

“Think: all men make mistakes

But a good man yields when he

Knows his course is wrong,

And repairs the evil: The only

Crime is pride.”

 

            The idea behind the “Crime is Pride” quote, I think is completely true.  I believe that everyone makes mistakes and that it is only human nature to be imperfect, but if you’re smart you will learn from those mistakes and try not to make them again.  But pride is the biggest mistake, as it will lead to more mistakes and will prevent you from learning from your mistakes.

            It is my belief that humans make mistakes, always have been and always will be, that it is part of our human nature.  The mistakes made in life could be as simple as missing a test question, or as big as marrying someone they aren’t truly in love with.  No matter who you are, you have made a mistake at some point during your life, and you may even have regrets about it.  I know I have made mistakes in my life, and it is just something that everyone does whether they want to admit it or not.

            When you know you are or have been making a mistake, if you are smart you will generally stop and learn from what you are doing.    I believe that this is true and that although we sometimes slip up, when you know you have made a mistake you will try not to make it again.  However, I have the belief that we will still, as humans, make the same mistake twice or maybe even more.  We are not perfect so we can say that we have learned our lesson, but many times I know we will still go and make the same mistake a few more times before completely learning.

            When the quote says that, “The only Crime is pride,” I believe that it is referring to the idea of having pride about what may have been a mistake, or having too much pride in yourself.  When you think too highly of yourself, or you have great pride, it can lead you to make mistakes as you may think that you are above everyone else.  Many times the mistakes you make out of pride are ones that you will not learn from.  The mistakes that you are making and not learning from, or stopping, can lead to more pride and it is all a downward spiral of mistakes.

            What comes to mind when I read this essay is the typical high school girl.  Many times a girl will have one guy that no matter what they will keep going back to.  Most of the time this guy is probably not very good for the girl, but the girl will keep going back to him and making the same mistake over and over again until she learns.  When she finally learns that going back to him all of the time is a mistake, she will stop doing it.

            Therefore, I have to agree with the “Crime is Pride” quote and that every human does make mistakes, but if you are smart you will learn from them and stop making the same ones over and over again; and that pride is the biggest mistake by far, leading to other mistakes.

 

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