To this day, I don’t know when music came into my life.

I was mostly interested in sports since my family are sports fanatics and we would listen to music from time to time in the car, at parties and all of that.

When I was in middle school, I started actually listening to music and became interested in what I was listening to.

Before that, I don’t even remember what style of music I liked and what entertained me.

I always used to judge those people in middle and high school that drove pick up trucks which were always very loud and obnoxious.

I always heard people talk about their truck constantly and how amazing it was, saw people wearing those worn out, dirty, boots and blasting country music.

My town is known for the red necks and it honestly annoyed me to see all those people tailgating and acting like they were better than everyone else.

My mom’s side of the family is very into country music, playing guitar and doing activities that country people would usually do. I never had that much in common with them, but they’re my family and I loved spending time with them.

The music never really hit me until I listened to it on my own and listened to the lyrics.

I don’t remember exactly when it was, but I think it was either the end of my senior year of high school or the beginning of my freshman year of college.

I heard a song by Luke Bryan and I loved how soothing it was and the lyrics actually meant something. The song hit me and it was such a catchy song along with being relatabe. After a while, I started to listen to more and more songs by him and I became hooked.

Sam Hunt, Florida Georgia Line and Blake Shelton suddenly started filling my Spotify and I just played the playlist over and over again and I never got tired of hearing the same 20 songs when most people would think that the songs got old over a long period of time.

This started my country obsession. People started to notice that I was listening to country a lot more than I usually did and while some didn’t question it, some did and told me that I was lame for listening to it.

I know many people are thinking, “Why country?”

Well that’s what I thought also. I’m not this country girl who goes out and wears extremely overpriced cow girl boots, wears flannel that barely cover their stomachs and rocks the cow girl hats.

I’m not like those girls who go out and drink, go to concerts and do those stereotypical activities.

The music just really brought me to a place that I never had been to before.

A lot of the songs would bring back memories, good and bad. Whether they could cause tears or smiles, I loved each and every song for the meanings that they had behind them.

Whenever I’m driving, I’m playing the same playlist just cruisin’ down the farm-like roads that I grew up in. I belt each song that blasts through the speakers and enjoy the long roads full of nature and fields which the country songs remind you of.

It’s an amazing feeling to just listen to the calm, relaxing music and you catch yourself thinking about thoughts that you never thought you would think about.

Even though I really enjoy this kind of music, I still love listening to classic rock, today’s hits and all of that jazz just because I grew up listening to it.

You will catch me dancing and singing with friends to Fetty Wap and taking a stroll down the highway with my dad playing some “Crazy Train” from time to time. I will never enjoy heavy metal or screamo because I can barely understand a word they are saying 90% of the time.

Country music seemed to relate to some of my situations throughout the tough high school years and the first year of finding out who I am as a person.

Sometimes it would even help me escape reality and go to a completely different place.

If you have never tried just driving to an empty field or space where it’s quiet and vacant, cranking up the country tunes, relaxing, and embracing the nature, I recommend you try it at least once.

It definitely helps you escape life for a little while when you need it the most. You will feel something that you never thought you would and that’s what happened to me.

If you are a romantic and need a way to express yourself, country music is the way to go. After a long relationship break up, give a song a try to help you get through your suffering.

I can’t tell you how many times I have thanked country music for being there for me when no one would.

If all of this writing put you to sleep, so be it, but if you stayed and actually are considering anything I said, you will thank me later. Country music changed me for the better and I don’t regret giving a song a chance to sweep me off my feet.

University of Hartford’s very own Ronnie Cadogan appeared on WNPR Radio on Monday, Aug. 24.

The freshman on campus recently graduated from the Law and Government Academy magnet school in Hartford. He was featured for volunteering for a program in the middle of Hartford called “RiseUP Hartford”. This organization helps the less fortunate is a temporary home for single women, young kids and families.

RiseUP Hartford gives teenagers and young adults the opportunity to help out the kids who are struggling. One of the jobs that he had as a volunteer was to work with some of the families that were residing at the Salvation Army’s Marshall House. Cadogan helped some of the younger children tie-dye t-shirts, read a story to the kids as well as teaching them to read and every kid was given a backpack that was filled with different supplies that they would need for school.

“I just wanted to give back to my community and help the youth, because I’ve never had the opportunity that they’re gonna have,” Ronnie had said during his interview. These programs are aiming to help the younger kids develop an interest as to where they are living and they are also tightening up their leadership skills.

This shelter has kids, who are as young as 12, come in to help out these kids in need. There are kids helping younger kids find and read books.

“It’s a different experience when you see someone that looks just like you, come in and want to help,” said Tomiko Grant, who is the shelter’s assistant director. There are many kids who might not have the right status to get a job and go to college, have no parents at home to take care of them or have parents that work hours on end.Driving on I-91 south towards Hartford, there will be a mural painted on the back wall of a gas station. When the mural was shown, $600 was raised for the Connecticut Children’s Medical Center when the organization held a Zumba fundraiser.

“I tell the kids every single day that we’re all family here, we’re all family here, so then they’re not only getting support from us as mentors, but they’re also supporting each other,” said Matt Conway of East Hartford.

Cadogan and many other volunteers are helping to make a difference and letting all these kids know that they are loved and are getting all the help that they can get.

Philanthropy week has been a big hit for all of the fraternities and sororities on campus.

For anyone who isn’t aware of what this past week has been about, each chapter on campus hosts an event that represents the philanthropies that they support. There have been many events going on around campus and many chapters are informing others about their philanthropies while having fun in the process.

Delta Zeta’s Nicole Doucette, the philanthropy chair, planned an event for all who participate in Greek Life.

The event, The Amazing Race, takes place on Wednesday Sept. 9 from 8-10 on the five’s  quad in the village. This chapter is raising money for the Starkey Hearing Foundation. This foundation focuses on providing hearing aids, cochlear implants and many other types of aid for people who struggle with hearing. Delta Zeta organized a project called Hike for Hearing which involves this event and a hike that will take place at Talcott Mountain in West Hartford on Sept. 20 around 12:30 p.m.

“The Amazing Race is a relay race with challenges for participants to overcome throughout the course of the race. Teams participating in the event will be made up of six people since there are six challenges throughout the race.

The challenges include, dressing up in crazy costumes, running with stacks of pizza boxes, eating through a whipped cream pie in order to find a piece of bubblegum and blow a bubble (an added twist, participants can’t use their hands), and so much more,” said Doucette in an email. “At the end of the event, there will be prizes for the top three winning sororities and fraternities.”

The Amazing Race is sponsored by Hike for Hearing.

The Pi Beta chapter of Delta Zeta at the University of Hartford are looking for sponsors for the 20 of September during their annual hike. If you would like to sponsor, you can visit the Delta Zeta website and click on Hike for Hearing.

This past April, I experienced something that I never had. Something that changed my entire summer and changed my lifestyle overall.

I was in my friend’s dorm room in A Complex on a Friday night playing NBA 2k15 on the Xbox 360 because as some people might know, I’m a huge New York Knicks fan and I played basketball since longer than I can remember.

I’m decent when it comes to playing video games, and at one point in this game, I was ahead by only a few points.

I guess you could say I was pretty excited.

I had gotten up from the wooden desk chair that I was sitting in and went to take a sip of the Baja Blast Mountain Dew (which is my favorite and an addiction) that I was drinking.

I was still going crazy because I was winning and I went to sit back in the chair and I sat right on the edge in which the chair came out from underneath me and I hit the back of my head on my friend’s roommate’s closet.

I don’t remember about a minute after I hit my head, but all I do remember is sitting on my friend’s roommate’s bed with my hand behind my head and my friend was sitting next to me asking if I was okay. According to my friend, I was staring straight ahead with a blank look on my face and it looked like I had no idea what I was thinking or doing.

I didn’t think it was a big deal so I just kind of blew it off.

I had a few friends visiting from another college that night so we all went out to a party, danced and had a good time.

I felt perfectly fine and I totally forgot about what happened beforehand.

On Saturday morning when I had woken up, I started to have really bad headaches and migraines.

They were so bad that I had to lie in bed and shut my eyes for a while before they finally started to go away.

When the headaches continued on Sunday, I knew that something was wrong.

After my Monday classes, I had my friend take me to the emergency room to get my head checked out.

After about 45 minutes in the waiting room, and another hour or so in the examination room, I was told that I had a concussion, and I was going through post-concussive syndrome (PCS). The doctor did plenty of tests like taking my pointer finger, touching the tip of my nose and slowly take the finger away from my nose while I’m still looking at it.

Once I got back to school, I wasn’t able to drive, text, watch TV, play video games or use my laptop.

All I could do was not go to class, lie down in bed and do nothing. For a week, that’s all I did.

If I had to go out in the sunlight, I had to wear sunglasses. If I decided to go to class and I felt well enough to listen and pay attention, I had to wear sunglasses indoors.

I won’t forget the weird looks people gave me when I was sitting in a classroom with my sunglasses on.

I could barely eat anything because when you have a concussion, you sometimes lose your appetite.

My friends came up to my room to bring me snacks, water and to help me out with homework.

Since it was the end of the semester, I wasn’t able to take finals so I had to take them at a later date.

The entire summer, I was experiencing headaches and I wasn’t able to work as much as I did.

I had been working at a water park in New York for the past four summers and I couldn’t work during the day this past summer because of my concussion and my ability to be in the blistering sun.

I only worked night groups from 6:30–10 p.m. when the sun wasn’t strong.

I gained 10 pounds from not being able to exercise and work out.

The concussion limited me from doing things that I loved and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t escape from the pain.

To this day, I get headaches once every two or three days, but they are finally starting to dwindle and I’m getting back to normal.

I can obviously look at computer screens, TV screens and all of that, but I need sunglasses whenever I walk outside in the sun or the headaches will come back.

I’m not sure how much longer these frequent headaches will last, but I’m hoping that I can learn from this and be more careful when I’m at college, even if I’m winning in a video game.