Personal Narrative: Focusing On The Real Game

Music has been enjoyed for centuries by people of different cultures, languages, and religions. It is used for general enjoyment, as an outlet for relaxation, and as an auditory distraction from the stressors of daily living.

Listen to music can help relief stress, listen to music that I like can help me to being disconnect from the things happens around me and can make me feel relax.

It was a dark thursday night in April. The sky was clear enough to see the moon shining brightly along with many small circular diamonds. I’m in a dark blue Avalanche, being driven to a baseball diamond. I play for the MIlwaukee Brewers on a little league level. It’s my last game of the season, and I can’t wait for the umpire to say the words “Play Ball” (which states that the game has begun).

Over my years of school, one big influence on me has always been sports. Ever since a young age, I have always enjoyed playing and watching sports. In my four years in high school, I have fell in love with the sport of lacrosse.

For me music is a big thing. What type of music do you listen to before each game?

I woke up and took one bite out of my pop tart but that one bite was all I could eat. My legs were shaking, and my heart was pounding. My dad told me, “It is a true honor to even make it this far so go out there and have some fun.” Once I heard this statement, I knew I was ready to go. I arrived at school and boarded the bus. The car ride was an hour and fifteen minutes of hearing the squeaking of the wheel on the bus. My teammates were getting their heads ready for the big game.

For many players, participation in their sports offers an escape from these stresses. They are able to leave behind the responsibilities at home and give it their all out on the field. Athletes feel great levels of euphoria while competing because sports offer them a safe haven from reality. To Ken Skates, a Permian High School alumni, football was “always something to fall back on.” He states, “I get out to the football field, and everything wipes clear in my mind” (Bissinger 329.) Like players, fans also use sports as an escape from their everyday lives. Parents put a lot of effort into their children’s teams. Some, like Dale McDougall in Bissinger’s Friday Night Lights, even dedicate the majority of their time helping to benefit their team. McDougall “had built a life around it, a whole routine - the lasagna dinners, the booster club meetings, the practices in the dappled afternoon light with that sweet breeze blowing across, and of course, those wonderful games, so glorious, so exciting, the power of a million stars shining down on Odessa on a Friday night. She knew it had to end sometime, but she wasn’t ready yet, not in this final minute, not for her, not for her son, not for her town” (Bissinger 326.) McDougall spends weeks making lasagnas and preparing for her son’s games as a

Down by one, two outs and it is the last time up to bat for the Wildcats. If we lose we will go home, but that is not what I am focusing on, right now, all thoughts are on the next pitch. With a runner on first and second, a hit to the outfield could tie the game. A bad pitch, maybe. A lucky shot, maybe. As the bat hits the ball, a silent focus turns to screaming and jumping. A ball hit about a foot off the right field line, fair, brings in our first runner with ease. A wave of relief sweeps over the whole third base side of the field. Our cheering distracted the other team, maybe. The tie upset them, maybe. Just a well-placed ball, maybe. Unseen through the excitement, there is a player rounding third heading home for the win. A ball thrown too late. A headfirst dive through the catcher’s legs. There is screaming from the third base side as the umpires arms stretch out parallel to the ground. Game over.

According to a study published by Edison Research, in May 2014, 52.1% of the music listened to by Americans every day is on the Radio. To think that over half of the music “heard” every day is probably coming from car speakers, a dusty radio on your grandfather 's workbench, or that little radio tucked in a corner in your kitchen, is astounding. People that listen to music on the radio normally don’t concentrate on the music. Music is typically used to accompany a mundane task, or another source of entertainment, like a puzzle. It is also very common to listen to music while working. And while listening to music while doing other tasks isn’t a negative thing, people don’t know what they are listening to. This

The cheer of the crowd and the laughter of the kids in the air were the only things reminding me that it was just a game. Eight and a half innings, seven pitching changes by both teams, twenty-seven runs scored in all, and we were still losing. The sweat came dripping off my nose and forehead like melting ice. My eyes stung, and I could barely keep them open due to the bright rays of the sun beating down on the dirt and grass, the baseball diamond seemingly larger than it had been eight and a half innings ago. My coach’s whisper rang through my ears. “Only if you think you can,” he said so softly that I had to almost lean in to hear what he said. I was on third base, with the winner of the game was being decided by one out. We had made

Music is truly amazing, it really defines our social rankings and groups.For instance, people who dress more “grunge”, tend to lean more towards rock and metal. While the theater kids lean more towards Musicals and sometimes Jazz. People who listen to everything like me, we tend to not have a group and flow gracefully between groups.The there are some people who don’t fancy music in the least,they tend to have a harder time making friends.Not only that but there is a song that we adopted to sing at every game before it starts, The National

Based upon my research, i found that the higher tempo of the beat, the more activity or focus of your brain you have. Meaning that faster BPS ( Beats Per Second) we make focus less but more energize. And that slower beats per second makes you focus more and pay attention, yet feel well rested. Rock music was said to be the most energizing music. Rap was to be the most hype music. R&B and country music was said to give a nostalgic feeling. Sad songs or upsetting songs in any genre was recorded to negative actions on others or self conflicted. Actions like murder from depression, or suicide from excessive levels of stress. People usually listen to these songs ,because they want to relate to the performer and it usually ends up in something tragic. So uplifting music is the way to

Life really doesn't like to tell you what's ahead; sometimes it's nice and gives you a little hint, sometimes life replays itself so at least there's some familiarity in it, but most of the time my life seems out of my control. As a fifteen year old many people would hear me say this and scoff saying I don't have 'real' problems, or I don't know what the 'real' world is like. On one hand they're right, I shouldn't know what the 'real' world is like, most fifteen year olds are thinking about what picture they Instagram is a 'real' world problem. But being the not-so-average teenager, I do know what this so called 'real' world is.

As mentioned above, music is a way to distract a person from fatigue by elevating their mood, and increasing their endurance. Recent research has found that music is more than just a distraction to a person’s physical ability. Recent studies made by athletic psychologists proved that listening to the right music while exercising can increase an athlete's performance up to twenty

I listen to music everyday and I couldn’t imagine going a day without it. This is because listening to music is necessary for me. I listen to music when I am bored, walking to class, at a party, going through different emotions, or basically doing anything. If you turn on your tv anything you watch has background music, we even have music in elevators, which is proving the point that humans need music. Sue Devine writes in an article that “Whether we’re aware of it or not, sound and music is a primary hidden actor in our world” I think that is because it changes your mood, or fixes an awkward silence. Music is always there triggering memories and emotions, and changing our mood in an instant. This is exactly what music does for me, if i’m said i play a sad song, if I want to have fun I turn on dance music, and so on. If I sit down and watch Coming to America with Eddie Murphy and hear the song She’s Your Queen my brain will automatically think of cousin who passed away. He left behind a hilarious video of him singing the song at the top of his lungs. Or if I were to hear Fight The Power, by Public Enemy which is undoubtedly a protest song, I think of the struggles we still face.