OPINION: Is pursuing music worth it?
By Vicente Mendoza
Managing Editor
Published Tuesday, March 25, 2025
For many years, there has been one focal part of my life: music. I first began my musical journey when I was 8; my parents wanted me to pick up an instrument for fun.
The instrument I chose was the piano, which was one of the many instruments my father could play. As a young child, this was a hobby I really enjoyed; while my friends were picking up hobbies in Boy Scouts, karate or even basketball, I was the odd one out—fingers stuck to the piano.
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While I grew older, I started getting more invested in music, and that investment skyrocketed in sixth grade when I first joined the band program. This middle school activity was the perfect extracurricular for me, especially for the love I had playing and performing. I started out playing different instruments the first few weeks of band; each instrument I touched was worse than the last, but that is when I finally stumbled on the saxophone.
Playing the saxophone for the first time felt like that one scene in Harry Potter when Harry finally finds his forever wand, and this moment was the start of the long road ahead of me.
I am now 23, about to graduate with my Bachelor of Music in performance from TAMIU. From the first time I started playing music until now, I have had a decent career that took me across the country, but I ask myself was that really worth it?
Since high school till present day, music was a rollercoaster of emotions that had me question my love for it. From being verbally abused by teachers, losing “friends” over success gained over them and even having to transfer schools to see if my love for music was still there; I have been through it all. Yet, through it all, I still pushed myself through all the exhaustion I was facing especially through my undergraduate program.
Was it worth it? Personally, while I have had some of my worst moments in this career, I think at the end of the day I do not regret my decision at 8. All these moments, the good and the bad, built me into who I am today: a person, musician and teacher.
