Personal Narrative: Wade In The Water

“Put some meaning into your words,” said my chorus teacher as apathetic faces and idle mouths stare back at him“ A folk song of this magnitude should not be sung with such a light heart”. My ears tune into the dissonant voices surrounding me slowing interpreting the lack of passion already evident to my teacher. Subconsciously, my eyes and head slowly move downwards trying to shield themselves from the wave of indifference flooding my class. As I open my eyes, I am met with the gaze of the words boldly printed on my sheet of music - Wade in the Water. My thoughts are delayed as the urgent words capture my attention only to be interrupted by a piece of my reality. ” Wade in the Water - a song about a safe passage to freedom in the face of adversity, a song that not only demonstrates strength but also challenges society” says my teacher. Hearing the words roll out of his mouth, awoken a memory that rang church bells inside my head. In all churches that I attended, songs like Wade in the Water were common which caused my younger self to ignore them in exchange for things like toys and games. But even with my short attention span, I could not escape the emotions of detachment …show more content…
I couldn’t feel rhythms in beats. I couldn’t feel harmonies in the chorus. And more importantly I could no longer apply it to my life as migrant. Journeys and passage was forever prevalent in my life and as I embarked on yet another journey folk songs disappeared. There was no song as my family and I packed our bags and loaded into a beat-down van to leave our home of eight years. There was no song in the nights where that very beat down van sufficed as a home for five. There was no song in my many first day of school where only I only accomplished weak ties. And there was no song in the time where I faced oppression fueled by the same closed mind ideology that followed me wherever I went. And yet my love for folks songs