To all of my fellow pre-optometry and optometry students out there, have you ever played a musical instrument? I don’t think many would find it a surprise if you played the violin, drums,  clarinet, or the piano. I myself was part of the orch dork crew! 

If you read about my experiences in middle and high school orchestra you’re also probably not surprised that I well...stopped playing. 

But I don’t want that to be you. This is for all the passionate musicians out there who wanted to make it big but because of some factor in your life, you decided to put your musical talents in a box and shove your instruments under your bed. 

DON’T STOP PLAYING YOUR INSTRUMENT FOR GOOD!

I’m not saying you should play your instrument every single day. You’re in school. I get it! Life is incredibly busy, especially when you’ve got courses on courses in optometry school. 

What I’m trying to say is that you pull that thing out once in awhile. Carve out some time to play your instrument because it can actually help you during optometry school.

Now,I know you might think that it’s crazy since we have a ton of stuff on our plates. But man, let me tell you. I actually made some room (yes, I had to really find the time) to play the piano during optometry school my second year of optometry school after almost flunking a class (a story to be told in another post)...and it actually helped me - a lot.

If y’all are still skeptical, I feel you. But it’s actually REALLY great stress relief! 

I don’t need to tell you that music is one of the OG forms of medicine when it comes to dealing with negative emotions like stress. You know, like your first break up and all you could do was sit in bed curled up, listening to Justin Timberlake’s Mirrors...or maybe it was Sam Smith’s Stay with Me. Throw in Ed Sheeran’s hit Perfect and some of Harry Styles’ latest album? 

Don’t worry, I’m not here to judge. Point is, you were wailing any one of these lyrics in the fetal position under the covers. But the music was somehow helping. It channeled all those thoughts, feelings, and emotions and just spit it out into the world - literally. 

When you’re playing your instrument and creating those melodic music, you’re pouring out all of those negative feelings that are smoldering inside of you. The exact feelings that were making preventing you from relaxing and having a clear mind. 

Think about it. 

You’re dealing with a lot of hard classes while working in the clinic at school. You’re obviously experiencing a lot of stress and probably wasting some of that time either panicking or staring at your notes without retaining any information. So instead of wallowing in the infinite negative feedback loop from wasting time, just get up, dust off your instrument, and play. 

You’ll get your entire body engaged and be physically, emotionally, and mentally invested. It’ll help you shed those feelings that much faster and get that reset you needed to push forward.