November 2012 - My Life Sounds Like This! - DONE

November 2012

Davis and I took a 4 mile walk today.  As his oxygen level stayed well below normal, however, well above where he had been surviving on the past few months, he thought he was up to my workout...I have to say he kept up pretty good, but I had him in the home stretch!  I hope not for long!   I hope he is leaving me behind again soon and looking back at me with that "I've have ya beat grin!"  As we walked, we talked over the amount of work to be down to receive passing grades for the first term of junior year.  A bit overwhelming to basically start and complete an entire terms worth of class work in 2 weeks.  The past four or five days, he is beginning to feel like he is retaining the information once again.  Unfortunately, due to the amount of drugs and such with the serum sickness, he lost most of what he had already done at the first of the term and is having to repeat it all.

I have been so proud of the work that he is still producing after hours and hours of study, reviewing and working.  If it is sunny, clear and warm enough he steals away a few moments in the sun to study and soak in the much missed Vitamin D.  This week alone he has redone 6 pre-calculus assignments, a quiz(100%) and a test( 96%)  History assignments and tests are on the table now, seminary reading and assignments are waiting.  He wrote as English paper entitled "My Life Sounds Like This"  The assignment was to choose music and lyrics that describe a part of your life.  I loved watching him create this assignment and his theme of endurance and optimism through music is awe inspiring.                                                              
                                                                                                                                                   Davis Cox

Period 8

My Life Sounds Like This

            Songs and their lyrics seem to have represented an all-encompassing theme in my life for the past 2 years. Themes such as hope, strength, and endurance. Being diagnosed with a rare and random disease can definitely alter who you are, but I have made it a goal to not let it define me in a negative way but to push me towards my potential. The songs I chose are important to me because they give me feelings of hope and courage when I listen to them. Some remind me of experiences I have made it through while others push and motivate me to conquer what is yet to come.

            In late July of this year, I began having to make many drives to the hospital. One of the really popular songs at the time was “Stronger” by Kelly Clarkson. It was eerie that nearly every single trip, my mom and I heard this song on the radio as we drove to and from the hospital. After a while, we decided to adopt it as our hospital theme song and would turn it up and sing out loud every time it would come on. The lyrics “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, stand a little taller” just seemed to capture my situation so perfectly. Singing them out loud gives me the energy to stand up and not be so depressed about the situation and just keep moving forward.

            Sometimes music affects me when I don’t really expect it to, like on the radio. Other times, I go looking for it to get pumped up or just to get my mind off things. One of the songs that pulls me up when I’m down is “Move Along” by The All-American Rejects. It tells me “even when your hope is gone, move along just to make it through”. It’s kind of a tough-love saying that hits me as sometimes we just have no other choice but to move on, but we do have a choice of attitude.

            My mom has many songs and quotes that she has about our life and our attitudes. One of her favorites that she applies to a lot of aspects of living has taught me many things throughout my life. The song is “I Hope You Dance” by Lee Ann Womack, and whether it’s “I hope you still feel small when you walk beside the ocean”, teaching us to be humble, or “Never settle for the path of least resistance”, there are many life lessons to be learned from this song. My favorite message from this song is definitely the chorus: “And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance, I hope you dance”. It gives me the inspiration that sometimes we can just let things go, dance and have fun instead of just sitting and feeling bad for all the things that go wrong. We can choose to engage in our life and participate rather than simply let it go by.

            In my 16 years of life, I haven’t had any major girlfriends or hard breakups, but at times I find myself comparing love songs to other areas of my life that I love, like sports. Without sports I don’t know what I would do with my life. They give me motivation and determination to push myself physically and mentally in ways that I wouldn’t without them.  In “I Won’t Give Up” by Jason Mraz, the words “I won’t give up on us, even if the skies get rough” give me motivation to get back in shape and stay focused on the things I CAN do instead of the things I can’t. When I am healthy enough to play sports again, this will help me prepare to reach for my full potential.

            I have always enjoyed listening to music, I took piano lessons when I was little, but it was when I started playing guitar that I really started loving it. One of the first songs I learned, “Home” by Chris Daughtry, has stayed one of my favorites to play especially through tough times. “Well, I'm going home, back to the place where I belong, and where your love has always been enough for me” gives me comfort, no matter what happens in life. I’m grateful that I have a home to go back to and people who love me when the world lets me down.  Above one of our doors as you enter my house, a saying reads Take a deep breath, you’re home!  Being home has many different meanings for me at this time in my life.  I am daily wishing I didn’t have to be home quite so much throughout this illness.  Due to decreased immunity, I have had many restrictions placed on me about being in school or too many public places.  On the other hand when I am freed from the confinements of the hospital, home is the only place I want to be.

            At the end of the day, Celine Dion’s “A New Day Has Come” seems to pull everything together perfectly for me. The lyrics “Through the darkness and good times, I knew I'd make it through” gives me the assurance that I’ve made it through today and confidence that tomorrow is a new day. This song is on a play list that I listen to each night when I go to sleep. It has become a habit and part of my routine that brings comfort to me. The many emotions music creates have shown me just how much songs and their lyrics shape the way I think and feel. It brings out emotions and memories that I may not even recognize consciously, but that deep down affect my thoughts and actions. Whether good times or bad, I am always conscious of choosing good positive music to inspire my life.

Today he emerged from a class project with a smile of satisfaction on his face that I haven't seen for some time now.  He had created his Pyramid of Success (included) I was struck once again by the maturity that can only be gleamed by being in the refiners fire at such a young age.

D.Cox-Sports Psychology
Success is the feeling of accomplishment when you have
done everything you possibly can to be the greatest you can possibly be.
No Regrets.

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