School Me Saturday 11/30/24- Push on through (to the other side)

The song starts with a short cymbal warm-up.

Then the guitar starts laying down a beat.

Then the vocals.

“You know the day destroys the night,

night divides the day.

Tried to run, tried to hide.

Break on through to the other side.”

I am, of course, writing about Jim Morrison and the Doors and one of their best-known songs. It was the opening track on their debut album.

It is nearing the end of the semester. Perhaps you listen to music while you are studying. Or not. Perhaps you listen to music to wind down. Or not. But think about this song with me.

“Made the scene,

week to week,

day to day,

hour to hour.

The gate is straight, deep and wide

Break on through to the other side.”

I can take you all back with me to Peg Garner’s Advanced Placement English class in my junior year of high school, where I learned about poetry. In 1992. And how to analyze poetry. Because music is poetry. Or maybe they are complementary arts. I will let the philosophers decide.

However, music can teach us about ourselves. How to study, the cadence of songs helps here. It also helps if you are so familiar with the song that it ceases to be new and amazing and just becomes like elevator music. But you notice when it is gone.

Then a song like Break on Through (to the Other Side) speaks to you about endings. Because the semester is ending. It is nearly time to put up the books, and to put away the paper and pens and pencils. It is too early to worry about next semester; it is too late to worry about this semester. All you have to do is break on through. Finish the final papers, take the final tests. Do what you have to do to get through. Whatever it is.

Reflection is helpful here at the ending of one thing and not yet beginning of another thing.

Reflect on the semester and what went well and what didn’t. You can promise yourself to do better next semester.

Because there will be a next semester until you are finished with the degree program. And maybe even after that.

You might not be able to quit school.

But that is a problem for future you, isn’t it?