Music Makes BRS A Home away from Home

The author: John Esparza

Nearly three months ago, I was just leaving PEK in a van on my way to Beijing Royal School.I just found myself looking out the window at this city that was completely new to me.

Everything at BRS was rather standard except I was struggling to find where and when I could play music. I was very excited with my music theory class, I went to the music composition interest class and also met a band member there, but still nowhere where I could play any instrument besides a piano.Thankfully that all changed when I found a drum set and a djembe in the band rehearsal room.

The next day I met my new band mates at lunch time, I had no idea what was actually coming. Before this I had never really been in a band and I wish I did because it was nothing short of amazing. It was the first time I was really making music with people, I had done some of that before, but nothing as much as this. Whenever I played with them I felt like home, but it was a different home, it was a new home. The band was a huge leap forward for me here. With the band I had become much more comfortable here. The band acted like a doorway where I felt like it was so much easier to accept this place as my new home. This place is my new home, I have to realize that, I know no matter what, this place is my home, whether I like it or not, but with the band and its members I was much more at ease with acceptingmy new home. I love all the people in the band, they have helped more than I can explain.

Of course my bandmates aren’t the only ones I can accredit my well-being to here. Of course I would be nowhere without my teachers. All of my teachers are great here. In America there were always one or two teachers that I never liked or couldn’t agree with them on almost anything. Here is much different, all the teachers here I really enjoy learning from them, and they all seem to be extremely knowledgeable and are each truly masters in their own field. However I feel like the biggest difference is that I feel like I’m friends with all my teachers. This sounds lame because usually teachers are just lame old people who are annoying but that cannot be said about any of my teachers here. It amazes not just me but all of us foreign students.

Music has always been a huge aspect of my life and I hope that it can one day be a career musician. I love music so much and I’m so grateful for the music courses and activities that BRS provides. Music theory is great because it teaches me so much with music structure. I use this knowledge so much in all of the musical connections in my life.

In conclusion, there are so many more things that I can say about these past three months. You will realize that different countries are not different worlds.I know that many of my classmates plan on attending a foreign university for their future studies.If you ever plan to go somewhere far away, make sure you make friends, make sure to provide your own sense of home wherever you go, but most importantly don’t put what you love to do on pause, especially if you are young and learning like me.