Parker, 9th grade

    Silence is golden. In the lack of noise, you begin to craft sounds in your head that are entirely unique to your mind. Nobody, with the exception of myself, understands how beautiful silence can be. Music plays a large role in my life and silence is my favorite song. There is not much to hear on Mercy Hill. Mercy Hill is where I live, where I breathe, where I eat, where I sleep, and where I’ll spend the rest of my life. This particular hill is steep and dangerous. You can either travel the hill’s slopes, you can remain where you are and enjoy the dullness, or you can jump off of the cliff at the foot of Mercy Hill and see where it leads. But I choose the third option. Music.

    The great thing about Mercy Hill is that remaining stationary and enjoying a dull life is not as dull as the world leads you to believe. I listen to all sorts of music under the branches of Mercy Tree at the base of Mercy Hill. Mercy Tree is equivalently distant from the cliff and the slope. Being stuck between a rock and a hard place would be the common way of analyzing this situation. The temptation to either jump or walk the slopes is very alluring. But the music helps me. Rock, Rap, Country, Classical, Punk, and Pop. It doesn’t matter what I listen too. It soothes me into a state where the temptations no longer exist.

But none of those genres compare to Silence. Oh, how perfect Silence is during the day. I sit under Mercy Tree and stare up at the branches and the blacked-out sun provides a small amount of light that tunes the Silence to a soft melody. When night falls, the moon tunes the Silence to a hard rock tune that reminded me of barbeques I used to have while growing up. The point I am trying to make is: music distracts me from making a life changing decision. I know I must choose eventually, but for now, I sit by Mercy Tree and sit in silence. I can climb Mercy Hill and face the perils ahead, I can jump off of the cliff and face the perils below, or I can risk doing nothing for the rest of my life. Oh well. This song is too great not to listen to.