By Umu Diallo
As a child I wanted to do everything. At first it was writing, then singing, then playing an instrument and so on. You know, sometimes it is hard to figure out what you want to do. It’s like going to college for a specific major and changing your major over and over until you figure out what you want.
Who thought being a child was easy? Every day I looked at myself in the mirror and thought “who are you?” and “what do you want to be?” until, reaching down into my soul, I realized “writing is the way to go.” All I do is talk talk talk everyday, so why not put my words on a sheet of paper and tell a story?
Have you ever been so mad and angry at a person and just want to beat/smack them? Well these were my feelings on a daily basis. I wrote down those feelings and sang them and I felt better. Writing has always been my past and present, now it will be my future. Songs tell a story and the story is about life, something that you have learned about and understood. In order to turn something into a song, you have to feel it deep inside and write about it.
Umu Diallo is a student at the Girard Academic Music Program (GAMP) of the School District of Philadelphia.