Music Soothes

I found music in the sixth grade.  Otherwise, for me, sixth grade is basically a blur.  We watched a film and the song that was sewn into my heart was, "I'm Just A Poor Wayfaring Stranger."
My grandfather passed away that year, and the lyrics soaked into my spirit as I remembered him:

I'm just a poor wayfaring stranger
I'm traveling through this world of woe
Yet there's no sickness, toil nor danger
In that bright land to which I go
I'm going there to see my mother/father
I'm going there no more to roam
I'm only going over Jordan
I'm only going over home.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wayfaring_Stranger_(song)

I do remember one lesson in music where the author was trying to guess what music in the year 2000 would sound like.  There were electronic sounds that really impressed me, but the sound was so mechanical that I could not imagine that he could be correct.  Our music teacher tried to teach us how to direct songs.  "Glad That I Live Am I" was the song that everyone attempted to direct.  Guess who was most successful?  I'm sure that the rest of the class has forgotten that lesson, but it stayed with me.  For the first time, I had experienced success in front of our whole class, and I felt that I had finally arrived.  Isn't it funny how music brings back memories and associations?  Too bad I had to return to the regular class.  But my grades must have been pretty good because I was placed in the "smart class" in the seventh grade.  That is the first year that I found true friends --- Myra and Paula.  Seventh grade is another story all by itself.