We have so many choices in life. We choose our friends, choose our universities, our courses, our hobbies, our meals, our clothes, our daily activities. And of course, we choose the music to go along with everything in our lives.

Whether you consider music an overarching soundtrack to life or a set of specific playlists by occasion, music is a choice we all take upon ourselves as a reflection of who we are. It’s an act of self-expression to play the songs we play on our iPods, even if no one is listening but us.

So when we are also the creators of our own music, we’ve got an interesting role to fill. Is it that no other music in existence can express what we feel inside? Perhaps for some, it is. Or is it that we simply enjoy the process of writing songs as a creative outlet? For many of us, that may be the case. Often, it’s a combination of roles that we see music filling, as we create tracks to accompany our karaoke sessions, our songwriting endeavors, and our passion for music.

Whatever the purpose of music in your life, it’s important to realize that it’s also a universal trait of human cultures to use music as a tool for self-expression, identity, and communication. Even listening to music in isolation somehow connects us to a wider community – whether it’s to the artist who wrote that song, or to the other people we know who listen to it, or to things in our past that remind us of the power of music as a barrier-breaker.

It’s also important to step back and realize that music is never as isolated as some may perceive it to be. It’s a collective pursuit, a passion among millions of people, all over the world.

It’s encouraging to know that we’re never on our own when it comes to music … even if we listen to it through a single set of headphones, alone in our rooms.

Happy musicking, everyone.