In honor of this year’s Suicide Prevention Week, PRLACC and Latino America Unida, Lambda Alpha Upsilon Fraternity, Incorporated, teamed together to create a table that allowed students to share the songs they like to listen to when they have a hard day as a way to destress.
“This event is called, ‘What’s your music note?’ And so, in honor of Suicide Prevention Week, we’re just asking people to write down any song lyric, artist or any song in general [that they like to listen to] when they’re going through a tough time that can help empower them, pick them up and help them get through their day,” said Juwan Rosa, a seventh-semester psychology and human development and family sciences double-major and member of LAU.
The table had a pile of colored-paper music notes, where students were meant to write either a lyric, the name of a song or an artist that helps them during hard times. Once students filled out their music notes, they could tape them up to a giant poster board of what looked to be blank sheet music. Students wrote an incredible variety of songs, including “Jamaica” by El Alfa, “Coming Home” by Drake, “Caro” by Bad Bunny and “Sin Filtro” by Romeo Santos.
“I chose ‘Love Yourz’ by J. Cole; it’s one of my favorite songs, and its message has always helped me through rough times, and I listen to it when I have a bad day,” Aliyah Hayes, a third-semester finance major, said.
Rosa explained that they hope other students will read the song titles of their peers and listen to them the next time they’re feeling stressed. As such, by sharing their songs, students can express themselves and help others.
“[We wanted to bring] awareness that everyone goes through some tough times, difficult times, especially during the semester in certain areas—like we have finals or midterms or just really any personal family matters going on—things can happen to us,” Rosa said. “So, what we want to do is to have people recognize that through music, it can help people cope through tough times and get to the best of things, and that the emotions that music can provide and the benefits that music can provide is so helpful, and we want people to acknowledge that. And hopefully, by people getting a look at what other music helps people get through their tough times, maybe it will inspire people to reach out in terms of other genres or music that can help them.”
After students taped up their music note, they were invited to take a music-note temporary tattoo, a piece of candy and a Suicide Prevention Week T-shirt. For students beginning to feel the stress of midterms, stopping at “What’s your music note?” was a nice, easy way to break up the day.
“I think this is a really creative way of allowing students to find an outlet where they feel comfortable expressing their emotions,” Hayes said. “Music is an energy that correlates with your mood, and so having these songs that allow you to destress or to help you out of that bad place is a really good thing. And it’s good to find other suggestions that students find are helpful.”
Rebecca Maher is a senior staff writer for The Daily Campus. She can be reached via email at rebecca.l.maher@uconn.edu.
