Hello everyone, and welcome to the last blog!

As the final blog, I am going to make it a little different. If you have read all of the previous blogs, I am pretty sure you kind of got the story down. I would do the same thing for Alexander Hamilton, but it may sound kind of repetitive. However, if you are interested, you can always read more about Alexander Hamilton here. If you haven’t watched the musical, I highly encourage it. It’s the best of the best.

So, for this week instead of comparing Alexander Hamilton from the musical to his real-life self, I want to tell you something else. I want to tell you why I chose this topic as my passion blog, and truly explain why I love the musical so much. Let’s dive in!

As some of you may or may not know, I was born and lived in Mexico until I was 13 years old. Because of this, I never really learned much about American history. I knew bits and pieces, but I wasn’t aware of the overall timeline. I took my first American history class in the 8th grade, but the class had to be given by a physical education teacher because there were too many kids and the other two history teachers weren’t able to accommodate their schedules to teach a few more classes. I didn’t really mind at the time, yet you can only imagine how much I actually learned.

The musical came out in January of 2015 (I was still in the 8th grade) but it took me about a year to sit down and listen to it. The musical is hefty and contains a lot of information, which is why it took me so long to understand at first. However, once I started getting the hang of it and learnin the songs, I began understanding so much more about a very important part of American history. This encouraged me to learn more about American history, so I researched and informed myself. I can confidently said that overall, the musical taught me more about American history than my 8th grade class every did.

From that moment on, I absolutely fell in love with the music. All of the songs are so informational, so empowering and so engaging, that I get the chills everytime I sing them to the top of my lungs. Here are a few of my favorite songs of the musical:

• Alexander Hamilton – The opening act is hands down one of the best songs in the musical. It sets the scene perfectly and introduces Hamilton in an excellent way. Plus, when Hamilton comes out, it is impossible not to get the chills. I generally listen to this song when I want to feel empowered or motivated (great for the gym!).
• My Shot – This is the classic Hamilton rap. It is quite fast and long, but it contains a lot of information regarding the characters and shows the audience perfectly how Alexander Hamilton’s mind worked. Learning it was hard, but it is so satisfying now to know all the words by heart.
• Wait for it – Burr’s solo is also an excellent representation of how Aaron Burr felt toward Hamilton. He was consumed by his jealousy, which eventually led him to his doom. Plus, I think Leslie Odom Jr. has a beautiful voice, and he delivers his heart and soul in every piece.
• Non-Stop – Being the last song of the first act, this song is definitely a rollercoaster. It is six and a half minutes long, and so much happens in that time. I would say that this was probably one of the most fun songs to learn, and it is definitely a blas to sing it.

These are a couple of my favorite songs from the musical, but i honestly like every single one. This musical has changed my life, and I am so glad Lin-Manuel Miranda decided to write it. Who knew the best way to tell American history was through rap and hip-hop? Something else I love about the musical is the fact that it uses a non-white cast to represent a purely-white America. It has been described as being about “America then, as told by America now.”

This concludes my passion blog for the semester. I hope you enjoyed reading about one of the founding fathers and his crazy life. If you haven’t already, go listen to the musical!!!

Stay tuned for a new topic next semester! 🙂