Maika Nguyen

You know how sometimes, when you are feeling so down, so hopeless, just so tired in general? What do you normally do then? For me, and for a ton of my friends, the answer is “Listen to music”. That got me thinking, what *can* music do for us?

Let me break it down for you. A survey I read up about actually stated that per person, we listen to about 20 hours of music every week. Now, my math is not exactly the best, but that’s a lot of time! Specifically among youths like me, we turn to music as a comfort. Bad day? Music! Good day? Music!

We all have different music tastes, yes! Like me, personally, I’m not really the…biggest fan of Taylor Swift (sorry to the swifties) but I sure have music that i will be listening to repeat!

Now we turn from my opinion to the world. A test had shown, that a group of people singing in a choir, had taken their heart beats taken whilst singing, the results showed that every single one of them had the exact same heartbeat. How cool is that? Singing the same song, different people, different stories, from all walks of life, somehow in the same room, connected even through their heartbeats!

The question I have? How can we help the world with music? I’m fortunate enough to be taking music classes every week, experiencing all the joys and uhm…maybe frustrations of learning it step by step, but what about those who don’t? What about those who long to learn it, but simple can’t? How can I…share it to them?

Over 7,000 languages in the world, yet we all understand a melody. 8.142 billion people in the world, all with the hope of humming a tune. My main focus, is the elderly. Especially those in the old folk’s home. It hurts my heart every single time I see them there, so desperate for someone to talk to, only able to mix with all the others there, so happy for a simple thing as a child like me visiting them. The last time I went, they were so sad to see me go.

So let me share my dreams. A small, but hopeful dream. One day, I would love to share my music, the things I write, with people across the world, the people in pain, the people whom simple need a positive thought, the youths going through the struggles of finding their place in the world, the elderly trying to find a source of comfort in their golden years.

I’m only 12, I’m not that big yet, but as my motto goes, “The world didn’t grow on ‘maybe’s, so if you’re scared, do it scared. Learn to be brave.” So until I can find my own footing in the world, I’m starting small. This blog, (which probably not many people read) maybe visits to the old folk’s home, share a little music with them, and all the small things I can come across. One small ripple can start a big wave after all!

Love, Maika