Music
Music… a thing that most teens nowadays cannot live without. A type of art that helps people escape from reality and go into their own world. I do not think I could get through a school day without my music. I live off music, I guess you could say the world’s boring without it. Music makes me feel whole and it lets me detach from the real world for as long as I need to. When I need the confidence to walk into a store alone, I put both air pods in and shuffle my “liked” playlist on Spotify. When I am feeling down, I lay in bed with both air pods in and shuffle through my “That Type of Day” playlist. When I am driving, I connect my phone to the car stereo and play my “Vibe” playlist. You might think I have a playlist for every situation in life I wish, but sadly I do not. There are plenty of genres or as I like to call them “worlds” in the music industry, but I mostly steer toward the R&B, and Rap worlds. Music is one of the most beautiful forms of art and many artists use it to express themselves.
“Love Yourz” was released in 2014 as the fourth single of J. Cole’s third studio album, 2014 Forest Hills Drive. “Love Yourz” is a song with a deep message about gratitude and self-love. When the song came out, J. Cole gave a slight explanation, saying, “When I was young, I thought success was all I needed… having people say, ‘Yo, you are the best in the game!' I thought those words would be the things that would bring happiness… When those things came, the happiness was not there. There was such an attempt to achieve these things and to keep going that you lose sight of the people and the blessings you have around you.”
The song starts off with the lyrics: “No such thing as a life that’s better than yours” they are constantly repeated throughout the entirety of the song. The repetition shows how much he wants the person listening to know how blessed they are, no matter what they think they lack. “It’s beauty in the struggle, ugliness in the success. For what’s money without happiness? Or hard times without the people you love.” As a person who would die trying to become successful these lines brought me back to reality. It made me realize how many times I have shut people out or how I have let the people I love down because I was too worried about succeeding. The lyrics allowed me to realize my mistakes and focus more on the beauty of struggle.
Towards the end of the song, he goes on and on with lyrics that start with “always gon’ be.” As a person who has always cared about my appearance, I always wanted to have the best clothes, the best shoes, and the best hairstyle these specific lyrics hit the most it made me aware that someone is always going to have better clothes, and better shoes, it made me realize that I was trying to win something that is impossible to win.
Take J. Cole’s advice & LOVE YOURZ
30 before 30
30 before 30 is actually a list of things you want to complete before you reach the age of 30. My list is filled with life goals and stuff I feel I want or need to accomplish. I made this list to give me some guidance and remind myself to have fun t also accomplish my goals.
I’m shy, well sometimes, introverted, and would rather stick to the same routine than change it up. I guess you could say I am afraid of change. I made the list to get myself out of my comfort zone and find out what the meaning of life is to me.
Get a pretty license photo
Adopt a cat
bake a pie from scratch
Clean out my closet
Own a house
Decorate my own house
find my signature scent
Own my own company
Purchase my dream car
Give back to my community
Become an official dog mom
Go on a girl’s trip
Go bungee jumping
Go to Vegas with my cousins
Find my own style
Go for a late-night drive
Start a garden
Go to a concert
Drive a motorcycle
Try 30 different types of cultural dishes
Stay in a cabin
Have a picnic
Quit a bad habit
Become trilingual (hopefully, French)
Go to an art museum
Purchase 10 more books
Get a tattoo
Get more piercings
Go roller skating
Become successful
What is one thing you can not live without?
One thing I would say I cannot live without is my leave-in conditioner Shea Moisture’s Jamaican Black Castro Oil Leave-in Conditioner brings my hair to life. I do not know what I would do without it. This specific hair product helped me embrace my natural hair and wear it down more often.
As an African American woman who really struggled to find a hair product that worked for my hair, finding this one gave me hope to keep looking. This natural hair journey is difficult but I am getting the hang of it slowly but surely. Waking up and doing my hair every morning for school was dreadful and not being able to get my hair braided because of basketball was even worse.
Shea Moisture’s leave in conditioner makes my hair so much easier to detangle and style. The way it helped me improve my hair routine is ridiculous. My detangling and styling time is so much faster than it was before, my detangling process shrunk down to 20 minutes plus my curls look great. Not only does it style great, but it also smells great. The smell makes me think of birthday cake every time I apply it and it just surrounds me.
Doing my hair without this product would be way harder and I do not believe my hair would look as good. The moisture it gives my hair is so good and I just could not live without Shea Moistures leave in conditioner.
One More Year
Senior Year it’s scary just thinking about it... graduation, Grad Nite, college, senior pictures, Prom and so much more. Personally, I think the Class of 2024 is the best class not only because I am a part of it, but because it is just a fact.
I want my Senior Year to be my most memorable year of high school, so to make my senior year count, my goal is to take part in every school activity. I want to get out of my comfort zone and socialize more.
I want to go to as many school dances as possible, and at the end of every event. I want it to feel as if my feet are going to fall off from the amount of dancing I did. I want to drive to the beach for Senior Ditch Day and become irritated at the amount of sand that has made its way into my hair.
I want to wince while I apply aloe vera on my body the next day to help with the sunburn. I want to have the most memorable Senior Prank Day; be the class the teachers talk about to the underclassmen. I want to go to Prom and have the best time with my friends, not caring about what others think while we dance and be in our own little world.
I want to walk across the stage with my cousin and throw my hat in the air at the end of graduation. When I throw a huge graduation party at the end of the year, after all this, then I will know I made my senior year count.
Freshman year 2020 Junior Year 2023