Professor Decatur
ENG 131-16
Donte' McAfee
“Decisions”
Music can be a way to express ones inner feelings or thoughts. It can also be an escape from the normality of life. For me, music is used as both a way to escape, and to express how I feel. My love for music grew greatly when I began high school, but has always been a huge part of my life. I had to make a choice in what profession I wanted to pursue early on. The automotive industry had always been my first love, and still is. Cars and music are my two passions in life. To find a profession which combines the two would be a dream to me. As a child, maybe around age eight or so, I was in love with cars, trucks, and anything with four wheels. They didn’t have to go fast, be new, or even shiny, I was just fascinated with how they work and the history of them. I started off sketching cars in my free time. I was never all that talented in drawing, but there were just so many ideas that I had to get on paper. I came up with different designs and concepts that I thought were original and great. I recall getting into trouble often in school for not paying attention in class. At this time in my life all I was really concerned about was cars and girls, even as a youngster. Drawing them wasn't enough for me though. I was still young, though, still finding myself and I grew up a little around that age. There is a huge box of hot wheels somewhere in my house back in San Antonio. One day I hope a few of them will be collectable. Every time I see that big heavy box, I have to laugh. I grew up a little more after that stage. At about thirteen or fourteen years old, I had moved to full size scale cars. Fortunately, that phase was less intense. I'm just about to start high school around this time. I remember at the beginning of my high school life, things weren't easy for me. Where I attended high school was also the place that I transferred to at the very end of the eighth grade. I got there right after the TAKS test. I had no friends at all from there. I had gotten kicked out of my old school right at the end. Its a long story. Anyway, that summer, I went to some sort of summer program that the school had but I can't recall the name. It was a way to get ahead before the school year started. This is when I first found out how music can really make you feel. I remember my room around the age of ten or eleven years old. It was, to me, the room of a little kid, which I no longer considered myself to be. The one thing that bothered me the most was this colorful plastic dresser which, of course, was covered in drawings of cars. I told my parents I needed to redesign my room to a more mature environment. Eventually it happened over the course of a few weekends. The carpet was changed to my favorite color of blue, at the time, and I even painted the white walls blue. If I see that room today I'd probably wonder what I was thinking to have so much color in one small place, but it worked for me at the time. Anyway, my new room felt more mature to me but it was missing things. I needed cars around me. It now became my hobby to collect them and I probably went a little overboard. It started with hot wheels, and every time I went to a store I had to get at least one. I put them everywhere in my room! Every dresser had them as well as the floor. I used my pens and pencils from school to make roads to drive them around. I had a great imagination and I still do. I can remember this music program called audio engineering that I enrolled in that summer. The teacher's name was Mr. Brown. It seemed that everybody already knew him from the previous school year. The program was held in this small room of the school that seemed to be thrown together last minute. It was just a small narrow type of room with about five regular computers and a special Apple Mac PC. At the end of the room was another room with a door. Behind that door was a microphone. The regular computers had a program on them that I would begin to familiarize myself with over the next few years. It was called FL Studio 5. It is a production program where you can create beats from scratch and even record over them. I was amazed at what this program and my imagination can do together. I played with it a little during that summer, but we only had half an hour a day in there. That was never enough for me. After the summer school was over for the day, I would go back in and mess with it some more; even the microphone. I wasn't that good of a rapper but everything was so new and easy back then, I felt like I had unleashed a new talent from within myself. That was the longest, shortest summer of my life but it was amazing. After that summer I grew up a little more. I was now about fourteen or fifteen. My first year of high school was alright. I found out in my sophomore year that my school had an audio engineering class that could be taken as an elective. I made sure that I got in. The teacher was Mr. Jones. He was a guitarist and pianist. That was one thing I regret not learning in music class; I cant read music. He seemed to know more about the recording side of audio production. We still had regular computers with FL Studio on them, but we didn’t focus that part of the class. It was this year that I learned how to record, mix, and master audio. The recording booth was a lot better and bigger now, so things were a lot easier. We would have projects where someone in the group would make a beat and someone else would record over it to a particular subject. I always chose to be my own group. I can remember one project where we had to make a song about education. I made a beat for it, wrote the lyrics, recorded it, mixed it and mastered it. In my opinion, mine was the best and I think everyone felt the same way. We had a five minute break between classes. During the thirty or forty five minutes before the bell rang, music was played over the intercom to let you know to get to class. Usually it was just a regular, random song. My audio engineering teacher liked my education project so much that he had it played over the intercom between classes. When I first heard it I couldn't even recognized my work. It felt odd hearing my voice and my beat all around the school but I liked it. It wouldn't be the last time I would make a song, though. I've always liked playing music for people. I listen to all kinds of music now. Jazz, Rock, Blues, Old School Rap, Oldies, and anything that makes me feel good. I don't really care too much for current music. Most people wouldn't guess all of that about me. I still make beats just for the release it gives me. It helps me to unwind and let my mind free. I still rap and record too. It's just for fun, but everyone I show it to is impressed and thinks I have something going for me. I'm not saying I want to be a rapper or anything but I do feel blessed. I can be whatever I put my mind to. I felt like a telecommunications major in Radio, Television, and Film is perfect for me. It seems broad enough to have something that fits me perfectly. Cars will still be my first love. Maybe one day I can find something that has the best of both worlds, but for right now I think music is calling me.