Taking a class about the history of popular music has shown me that the subject is way more complex than I expected (as far as all the ideas you can focus on) and I feel like you can take the study even further as you engage with the world. I grew up with a sort of sheltered library of music (what my parents let me listen to/what I was interested in). I feel inspired to keep learning about music I am not familiar with and have more conversations with the people I meet, find out what they like to listen to and grow a wider appreciation for what’s out there. This is important to me because I’ve been considering pursuing contemporary music performance/songwriting as a career, and to do that I need to be familiar with many styles/expressions of ideas as well as creating my own.