Audio

An endless stream of sound is all I ask for in my life. I never want quiet. I never want my ears to not be constantly tickled with noise. I came to this realization this week as I was falling asleep to NPR and wondered to myself, “Why do I do this?” Why is it that I must always be listening to something to be satisfied. The answer, I think, is simply complicated.

At its base, my love of sound stems from my love of people. I am an extreme extrovert and I get most if not all of my energy while being surrounded by others. It doesn’t matter if I’m engaging with other people or not, it just feels good to be around other human beings. For this reason, I gravitate towards big cities, large events and active groups. I realized that in these settings, there is always a lot of noise as people communicate with one another. I like the sound and therefore, when I’m alone, I like to listen to other people.

The other half of my obsession with sound is my love of music. As I have mentioned before, I am a member of an a cappella group on campus: The Coda Conduct. Shamelessly, we have an EP coming out this week and you should all go stream it/download it when it drops this Saturday! I’m constantly singing or making music in some way. The sound of music and the act of making it are incredibly soothing to me. Therefore, if there is no sound in my life, I make it with my voice through song.

That’s why this year, living alone has been so good for me vocally. Since there isn’t anyone around to talk to and since I can’t always be consuming audio content (okay, I can and I do, but sometimes I like to switch things up a bit) I sing. This means that I’ve basically been practicing for my a cappella group every day of the semester. I’ve loved what this has done for my voice and for my knowledge of music in general, but most importantly, I’ve loved how for once in my college career, music and singing have connected me directly with people I like. My a cappella group and its members are so incredibly kind and friendly that I look forward to the times when I get to practice with them (twice a week for two hours, more this week because we have a concert on Saturday at 7)!

Writing this blog is the longest I’ve gone without listening to something all day. I decidedly turned off all sound in my life during my writing period and it’s already driving me nuts! I have to listen to SOMETHING and this blog is getting in the way. Perhaps this is a good tactic. Either way, I’m going to get back to sound now, but I just thought this was an interesting phenomenon I would share with y’all.

See you next week.

L