This is my response to Weekend Engagement topics Week 205:
What is your most favoured way to find pleasure when you're alone and why?
And
Explain your favourite way of motivating yourself to do difficult or uncomfortable things.
Music
The answer to both questions is music so I figured I could answer both questions in one post, killing two birds with one stone.
It's few hours to deadline and here I am still looking for pictures that would suit my post while listening to "coat of many colours" by Dolly Parton
I don't have a lot of alone time due to the nature of my schooling and accomodation but one thing that always gets me craving and seeking for some me time is Music.
My alone time can't be complete without music. I enjoy music in a lot of ways including listening to music, playing an instrument or even learning how to play or sing a particular song. I read with music, play with music and run with music. It is interwoven in my daily activities.
My interest in music stems from childhood and has not been reduced by one bit but rather my desire to be more musical than I already am keeps pushing me to more depths.
Not just do I enjoy music for myself, I have been elected, appointed and even selected to take charge of organisation of various musical instruments from my secondary school days. These positions required me to organise the music department for gatherings which involves both instrumentalists and vocalists.
Ironically, I am not so good with singing or performing an instrument myself, but I am one of the best people who can organise and sync the whole process. I don't know if this makes sense though but it is what it is.
Among the musical instruments, I have begun both piano lessons and guitar lessons. It seems cumbersome to learn both and hence I don't plan on learning another instrument if I manage to achieve basic proficiency in these two despite my admiration for people who play various other instruments like the saxophone and the violin.
I seem to have progressed more with the acoustic guitar than the keyboard, perhaps because of its portability or non requirement of electricity, I can't tell. Or because of more consistent practice, who knows?
Music as we all know, is a universal language and as such, I cannot label any genre as my best, I enjoy it all. From the afrobeats, to the pop, the blues, R&B, just name it.
Sometimes listening on the phone or earphones is not enough, especially when I want my fam to join me in enjoying the melody. The speaker solves this problem with more audio quality which is always a delight to the ears.
Sometimes I just message my good friend, Paul for music recommendations, he has a similar love for music like me but somehow manages to lay his hands on more songs than I do. He was the one that introduced me to Amapiano and the rest is history.
Not just does music serve me in my alone time, music is my favourite way of motivating myself to do difficult or unfavourable tasks. Which is my answer to question 2 of the weekend topics.
I spent the last couple of minutes searching for a picture of my dad's nursery which I took during the lockdown. I just couldn't find the picture, I would have showed you what 4,000 palm seedlings looked like.
We raised it, of course I contributed at least 70% of the labour from filling the bags with sand to the arrangements. I was not involved in the planting because my dad insisted it was quite technical and he had to do it himself. The watering and weeding was also done by me.
Now all the above listed "jobs" were not pleasant to me but had to be done, and I did it but with the help of music.
I just put my playlist on and get to work, I don't feel the tedious nature od the work, I just listen to the songs, sometimes even dancing while working, despite being a terrible dancer .😅
My focus shifts from the task to the music which helps ease the stress that would have been felt while working.
So yeah! Music is my answer to both question numbers 2 and 3.
You can find the prompt here
All images are mine