My name is Anastasia, and the most important thing that anybody needs to know about me is that music is my blood and my air. I can’t function or get out of bed without a melody in my head or some part of my body tapping out the beats. I am twenty years old and am a student at the University of Arizona’s Fred Fox School of Music. Though my Major is Percussion Performance and I have been a percussionist for nine years, my passion is music in its purest form. By this I mean that no matter what the style or complexity, all music has a beauty to it because it’s how we share a little bit of humanity. However, the most precious part of music to me is both creating it, and sharing it with others. My joy is ethereal and my sorrows shake my core, so I use my emotions to write songs that unashamedly display how I feel, and in turn, when I sing and play them for others, I can see them first listen, then slowly lose themselves because the music takes them somewhere else where they are overtaken by their feelings. There’s nothing that I love more in this whole world, than being able to be that bridge for someone. To know that I’ve created a swelling in their chest that makes them feel bigger than they are. I’ve never given a single thought as to being anything else but someone who will eventually make a change in the world with their music. While working two jobs and taking more classes the the average full time student, I am constantly exhausted- so much that I have forgotten what it feels like to not be tired. But in every second of my free time I find myself running with my ukulele and notebook in hand to some deserted hallway in the university where I’ll always be writing a new song and making music, and suddenly it doesn’t matter that I’ve had no sleep or that I have a million other responsibilities that I have to take care of because I know that I can make a difference with my music. I make a change within myself and others every time I perform, and when so many people either lack the talent or the passion to do so, it’d be more than selfish to not want to share such an experience. I’ll do whatever it takes to be to leave an imprint on as many lives as I can with my music, and know that no matter what I do- I will succeed.