Mohammad Madmouj

Professor Cassel

English Composition II

9/12/2017

How Does Music Motivate People to Live Better Lives?

I remember when I broke my spine. I was a sophomore in high school, and I was in gym

class when. I was standing on top of a tall gymnastic box doing flips. Some kid I used to be

friends with comes up from behind me running and kicks the box while I was standing on top of

it. I fall backward landing on my back and slam into the ground. I felt the worst pain in the

world, and then at the time, I didnt know I broke my spine. So immediately I went to this

landing bed for gymnastics where I can fall on it and just lay on my stomach. Everyone was

freaking out, surrounding me, asking questions, but I couldnt say a word. I was just drooling.

We were upstairs in the gym where there is a track going around the gym, and the teacher was

downstairs with a lot of students, so he didnt see anything. Most of my friends were around me

worried saying, I hope Mo doesnt die. It was the last class of the day, so in a few minutes

everyone would be leaving to go to the buses and go home. So I mustered the strength to get up

and walk down some stairs to the gym and into the locker room with my friends following me,

and they said I looked very, very pale. I rode the bus home screaming while my brother held my

backpack for me. I really thought I just hurt my back really bad until I got home and laid on my

stomach on my bed and couldn't move. So I screamed for help and for someone to call the

ambulance and my brother did. Long story short I get to the hospital and they took an X-ray and
saw that my T-12 bone was fractured and is continuously being crushed. I had to be transferred

to 3 different hospitals in the process. My Surgery took 12 hours and I had a 75% chance to get

paralyzed from the waist down. After my surgery is when I stayed in the hospital for a month

and a half just laying in bed with tubes inside me.I had to get sponge baths every so often. What

got me through this part of my life was music and listening to motivational music like rap,

Electronic Music, and classical music. Also since I was a little kid I watched a lot of anime and a

lot of anime have really inspirational music because they tell a story behind it as well. The one

that helped me the most was an anime called Naruto and at my lowest point of my life, the music

in this anime was so beautiful. The story behind it as well really inspired me to not be sad during

this time and not be fearful, and hope for the best, and be thankful that Im still alive and really

strive to be able to walk again because I had to go through a lot of physical therapy to be able to

walk again. According to Scientific American In the last 10 years, the body of research on

workout music has swollen considerably, helping psychologists refine their ideas about why

exercise and music are such an effective pairing for so many people as well as how music

changes the body and mind during physical exertion. Music distracts people from pain and

fatigue, elevates mood, increases endurance, reduces perceived effort, and may even promote

metabolic efficiency. In a 2012 review of the research, Costas Karageorghis of Brunel University

in London, one of the world's leading experts on the psychology of exercise music, wrote that

one could think of music as "a type of legal performance-enhancing drug." I still remember every

detail of that day and how it changed my life forever and what couldve happened and what

shouldve happened but all I can do is just look back on everything as a life lesson.
 Right before the Surgery happening, I remember my father was there tearing up because

it was a very scary moment and all I did was pray to god Im ok and listen to music. I was laying

in bed and the nurses were checking in on me.The nurses were very nice to me making sure I

have everything I need and making me feel comfortable. At the moment I was being pulled into

the surgery room on a bed I remember accepting if I die at that moment and its ok, I felt it

would be pointless to not try and do the surgery because I did have that option but its still a

chance I would keep crushing my spine and take longer than surgery to recover. After the

surgery, I was on a lot of drugs and I couldn't sleep at all for days. I felt so much pain even on

Morphine and I had to get an enema. That was one of the scariest moments in my life I had to

experience and Im so lucky and grateful to be alive today. Some Artists and songs that really

kept my mind sane during this whole situation were Eminem's album The Eminem Show and

Recovery. Some songs were "Blue Bird and "Sha la la" from Naruto.

There are some things you just cant quite grasp about music. How it makes you feel and

brings you in a different world like an alternate reality. I love all types of music, any genre and if

I think it sounds good, Ill listen to it no matter what people say. Music that motivates me to live

a better life and become more successful and hypes me up to make my life goals are my favorite

types of music. Music genres that really motivate me are rap music, Indie-electro music, and

classical music in my personal experience. Im all about helpful music. Music can truly help you

with the toughest times in your life and I believe music is the best thing in the world for humans.
 Works Cited

Jabr, Ferris. Let's Get Physical: The Psychology of Effective Workout Music. Scientific

American, www.scientificamerican.com/article/psychology-workout-music/. Accessed

13 Sept. 2017.

Karageorghis, Costas I., and David-Lee Priest. Music in the Exercise Domain: a Review and

Synthesis (Part I). International Review of Sport and Exercise Psychology, Taylor &

Francis, Mar. 2012, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3339578/. Accessed 13

Sept. 2017.