Whenever I get prepared for a track meet or practice, music is my number one priority to help me get in the zone. Traveling on the bus, warming up, or even taking up warm-up jumps, music is always around me. It was a long road with how I only stuck listening to hip-hop to now listening to mostly rock ‘n’ roll throughout the day. 

At the beginning of my freshman year of college, I only stuck with hip-hop and rhythm and blues because I was used to staying in my comfort zone with music. Listening to artists such as G Herbo, Kid Cudi and Travis Scott were the only artists I needed to listen to during track because they create music with high energy and fast-paced beats.

It was only recently — specifically last season — that I started getting accustomed to listening to different genres of music such as Indie, soft rock and hard rock. These genres of music provide a great way of storytelling with artists such as Bon Iver, James Blake, Nirvana and Metallica. However, while practicing for track and field, I felt that hard rock stuck with me the most.

Listening to hard rock, I noticed that the high energy was there throughout different artists, but it was a chaotic energy that my heart was on fire and my blood pumping. Listening to this type of music gave me a push to continually raise my limits. 

Listening to “Something in Way” by Nirvana gave me the much-needed push to finish one more set of sprints or one more jump.

My mother introduced me to rock ‘n’ roll when I was younger, showing me artists that were popular in the 60s and 70s such as the Rolling Stones, Queen and Led Zeppelin. I was only 7, so I mainly stayed with what felt comfortable to my taste listening to R&B from the 2000s such as Craig David and teenage Chris Brown.

As I got older, I realized how essential rock ‘n’ roll is to music as a whole with the subgenres of rock ‘n’ roll surrounding my music taste such as grunge, hard and soft rock. They each fit a different mood, but I felt as if they all held a special place while working out on the track. 

When I work out, I always try to push myself beyond my limits where I feel I can’t walk at the end of the workout and I feel those emotions of primal and angst is similar to rock ‘n’ roll. 

When practicing, my main go-to song in the rock ‘n’ roll genre is “From Heads Unworthy” from Rise Against. Not only do the lyrics make me feel as if I’m on a mission, but listening to the lyrics, you understand the vocalist is a man just trying to live day by day. 

I learned a lot from rock ‘n’ roll and while listening, I learned about the power within the genre and how I can feel powerful while listening to different songs across the genre.