I think my essay fits under this topic:
Evaluate a significant experience, achievement, risk you have taken, or ethical dilemma you have faced and its impact on you.
...however, I feel like I could expand on this wayy more, but I don't want it to drag. I mean, am I being redundant in my essay? Any suggestions?!
Thank you guys so much!!
Essay Topic Choice #1:
Playing the piano has always been a big part of my life, especially once I realized how it could function as a form of therapy and relief for people that have different neurological disorders. When I was in middle school, I started going to the nursing home that my mom works at and playing piano for the residents there. Through these trips, I valued the skill that I have even more, not just as something I could do, but something I could do for other people.
They have a very old banged up piano that needed a good tuning, but whenever I start to play, their lunchroom would fill up with the residents. Some of them were crotchety old men that refused to listen to the nurses, but when I started playing, they would yell at the nurses to "shut up." Many of these residents have Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, Dementia, Schizophrenia, are bipolar, or have combinations of these. My mom would always come home from work and tell me of all the different trouble they had gotten into. One day, the nursing home got a call from a university, looking for one of their residents who had claimed to be a professor, because they were going to offer him a teaching position! Some others just like to escape from the nursing home and actually take a bus and go into Minneapolis. Nurses had to go after him, and try to find him in the bustle of the city!
Even while I play simple little songs that the residents recognized, or movement after movement of a classical piece, they all seemed genuinely happy and at peace. They forgot about their pain and all the struggles they'd been through with having to deal with their diseases. Some of these people didn't even recognize their own family, but still recognized a melody that they had sung as a kid or a piano piece that they had heard on the radio. One resident could hardly move any part of his body, but his eyes would tear up as he heard me play, because he used to be a piano teacher and remembered when he himself used to play away.
What about music is so pleasing and therapeutic to these people? I have watched Dr. Oliver Sacks' program on NOVA called "Musical Minds," which was about the research he conducted to find the connection between music and the mind, and read his book Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain. It's powerful enough for people to recognize, even the people that can't recognize their own family anymore. It's relaxing enough for them to forget their own pains. And most importantly, its uniqueness makes their days better, and put a smile on their faces. It inspires me to devote my life towards developing a cure through music to help the people that have these neurological disorders.
P.S. Is it too short?
Evaluate a significant experience, achievement, risk you have taken, or ethical dilemma you have faced and its impact on you.
...however, I feel like I could expand on this wayy more, but I don't want it to drag. I mean, am I being redundant in my essay? Any suggestions?!
Thank you guys so much!!
Essay Topic Choice #1:
Playing the piano has always been a big part of my life, especially once I realized how it could function as a form of therapy and relief for people that have different neurological disorders. When I was in middle school, I started going to the nursing home that my mom works at and playing piano for the residents there. Through these trips, I valued the skill that I have even more, not just as something I could do, but something I could do for other people.
They have a very old banged up piano that needed a good tuning, but whenever I start to play, their lunchroom would fill up with the residents. Some of them were crotchety old men that refused to listen to the nurses, but when I started playing, they would yell at the nurses to "shut up." Many of these residents have Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, Dementia, Schizophrenia, are bipolar, or have combinations of these. My mom would always come home from work and tell me of all the different trouble they had gotten into. One day, the nursing home got a call from a university, looking for one of their residents who had claimed to be a professor, because they were going to offer him a teaching position! Some others just like to escape from the nursing home and actually take a bus and go into Minneapolis. Nurses had to go after him, and try to find him in the bustle of the city!
Even while I play simple little songs that the residents recognized, or movement after movement of a classical piece, they all seemed genuinely happy and at peace. They forgot about their pain and all the struggles they'd been through with having to deal with their diseases. Some of these people didn't even recognize their own family, but still recognized a melody that they had sung as a kid or a piano piece that they had heard on the radio. One resident could hardly move any part of his body, but his eyes would tear up as he heard me play, because he used to be a piano teacher and remembered when he himself used to play away.
What about music is so pleasing and therapeutic to these people? I have watched Dr. Oliver Sacks' program on NOVA called "Musical Minds," which was about the research he conducted to find the connection between music and the mind, and read his book Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain. It's powerful enough for people to recognize, even the people that can't recognize their own family anymore. It's relaxing enough for them to forget their own pains. And most importantly, its uniqueness makes their days better, and put a smile on their faces. It inspires me to devote my life towards developing a cure through music to help the people that have these neurological disorders.
P.S. Is it too short?
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