The Road Less Traveled

During the 80's, my brother and I were shoved off to our grandparent's house practically every Friday night. Our parents had a lively social life. I can't remember if my grandparent’s made anything special for dinner or if we played boardgames, but I do remember Saturday mornings. While my grandpop went to fiddling with something in the garage and my grandmom went to work in her hairdressing shop in the basement, my brother and I had our eyes and ears glued to the television to follow the weekly saga of WWF. (That's the World Wide Wrestling Federation for those of you who were wearing diapers in the 80’s.) Each week we held our breath as Vince McMahon announced his newest recruit or his latest impulse decision to fire a star wrestler. Whatever the announcement, the crowd roared.

It had been years since I thought about that weekly tradition until I watched the movie The Wrestler in 2009. The music and storyline of the film brought back a nostalgic rush of emotions and memories from those mornings with my brother and WWF. The storyline made me wonder if this is what became of my Saturday morning heroes, and the theme song, by Bruce Springsteen, had a great emotional affect because I grew up in the Philly tri-state area listening to the music of the Jersey native.

Why does any of this matter?

I had always pronounced English as my major because it was required that I declare one and, well, I liked writing and reading the most. Then I transferred to George Mason University.

At GMU, I was presented with an alternative to the traditional English degree. I declared “Individualized Study (BIS)” as my new major before realizing the full opportunity the degree offered. The words I heard from the advisor were "no foreign language requirement" and "complete degree faster" - I was sold.

“What’s that?” is the response I get from people who ask me what I’m studying. For a while, I didn’t know how to answer that question, which resulted in polite nods or confused, uninterested expressions. Four semesters later, I have finally narrowed the definition to one word – “opportunity.”

Now my answer to the question is that the BIS degree has allowed me the opportunity to follow my passions, fulfill my dreams, and realize that I have the potential to make a lasting, positive difference in society. Okay, maybe I don’t say those exact words in fear of sounding pretentious, but that’s what I believe. This degree has electrified, excited, and energized a belief in me that I’m not receiving a degree, but instead I am claiming one.

All of this is why my introductory story matters. A few months after watching The Wrestler, my grandmom passed. In a nostalgic moment united by the music and storyline of the movie and my grandmom’s passing, I was inspired to write a eulogy in her honor. The focus of my degree is the study of how music-induced emotions affect the elements of creative writing. My goal is to help others use the influence of music as an inspiration to communicate their life stories.