Music can get you through anything.

The 6 words to describe me would have to be “Music can get you through anything.”

Attending four different high schools can be really stressful. My freshmen year just as I was making new friends and hanging out with old friends, I was told I was moving to the Netherlands.  At first I thought nothing of it, as if my parents were just going to forget about the whole thing in a month or so. Unfortunately, that never came and when Christmas rolled around I was on a ten hour plane ride to Amsterdam. A week later I joined a Dutch school. Being in a new country, knowing no one, and not being able to speak the native language I kind of kept to myself.  At lunch I sat alone the first week or two. Just listening to music, when one day a girl in my class came up and asked me what I was listening to and what bands I liked. After that I found it easier to branch out to other people I met who I had things in common with.  As life was getting easier I was told until I caught up with the other kids in German, French, Dutch, Latin, and Greek I could not continue at the school. I was again forced to move schools. My father did some research and found an International school in Eindhoven. Even though I had to travel by bike, train, and bus to get to and back from school every day, I survived two years at this school. Yet again I limited myself and made maybe one or two friends whom had the same taste in music.  I had got to know these guys and realized that most everyone at the International school had gone through what I was. From there my life in a foreign country just got easier. Even when I decided to move back to the states, I made my first friend through our taste in music. I was wearing a Foo Fighters shirt when from across the classroom I heard, “Have you ever seen them in concert?” Music has helped me come out of my shell and meet new people, as well as getting through a hard time in my life. And this is why the six words to describe me are “Music can get you through anything.”

Christian Schwartz (LSC 1301)