Blossoming Marigolds

The students were all gathered together, seated at what looked like a long vertical dining table created by their individual desks. The playlist of student requested songs played on a laptop in the background to help support a mood that would drive the working class towards completing their projects for their upcoming student showcase. During the last few weeks of the students’ summer program, I was partly in charge of teaching on the topic of art and music. To me this was great! Not that I have ever been some sort of musical genius and I still do not know if my half written songs will even be considered works of art to be studied by on looking admirers long after I am gone. And even though I know art is comprised of more than just drawing, I to this day often chuckle to myself when noticing my attempted drawings of human figures continue to resemble much of what I drew in grade school. In any case, I have always enjoyed the encouraging message of hope and comfort through the listening and creation of music. I have discovered for every season in life there is a song that can somehow make its way to the address of the soul to whom it is intended to be felt by as if it had a life of its own and in a way being an extension of the person or persons who composed it. The unique ability music contains to act as a living being that can seemingly manifests itself into one’s consciousness has always been a power I have hoped it would lend me for the sake of helping heal or encourage others.

I had been taught by all my musical instructors that art is meant for the purpose of sharing it with another after it has made its journey through the practice rooms and this idea of an audience being introduced to one’s artistic creation was exactly the course the students’ work was about to embark on. It had been almost a month getting to know student interests' in regards to how they felt about art. The environment made for students to explore the music they were introduced to and the songs they declared worthy as a “must listen to” was made possible during the unique season known as summer break before they had to return to their sessions for other academic subjects in the fall and it may have been the only type of atmosphere provided at the time intended for them to think further about how music had been experienced by themselves and other people. Most students seemed to explain their reasoning behind their favorite songs as an anthem to the emotion they were feeling at a particular point in time or as a tool they knew could be use in the future to get them to feel a certain way. The definition of music by particular group of students, how music is to be used in connection to emotion, played out before my eyes as they worked diligently, not excluding some monitored side conversations, but they worked consistently to finish their work for the following day’s student presentation.

The next day came and the students went through the scheduled plan of events to sum up their time of participating in the summer program. The final event, the student art showcase! By this time posters had been pinned to walls, paintings placed around the room, and a red ribbon created by a few students was taped from one end a wall to another, which marked the opening of the students’ exhibit. The hour went by as parents showed up to view their child’s works’ of art, raffle items were handed out, and soon the time to start cleaning up came. Well you know that part where I said parents “showed up”? Well, of course not all the parents came. No judgement, not every parent was able to show up to the event. It’s understandable of course. But the look of disappointment on one student’s face when their guardian(s) did not show did not escape my attention. The one thing able to make an appearance inside the class where the student waited at the end of the day was, you may have guessed it, their favorite song. Played from the laptop showing the image of a blossoming, golden marigold as the song’s cover image. Perhaps unknown by the student of the intended purpose as to why their favorite song was being played and yet its stimulating rhythm echoed throughout the classroom and suddenly music finally lent its power to me, it gave me the ability to uplift that one soul in such a moment, this is how I knew, I watched the student rise from the seat as they began to sing their song.