My second TED talk was Robert Gupta: Between music and medicine.
This video really pertains to me specifically because I'm at the same crossroads that Gupta was at years ago in his life.
I want to be a music major in a concert setting. I want to play the Clarinet for the rest of my life. The thrill of playing a perfect chord in the band makes me feel like I'm in the clouds. I forget reality and throw myself into the music. It's my everything. My only issue is that medicine fascinates me just as much as music.
It's in my character that I prefer to look over someone else's health before my own. Ever since I could consciously remember my thoughts as a child, I wanted to be a Doctor. I'm not sure what kind, but my goal in life is to make other people happier and healthier in life.
This TED talk helped me to understand Gupta's thoughts on his situation and how he decided to pursue a career in music therapy. He chose the middle path and pursued the "sense of social justice in his heart."
He then decides take his time to explain how our human brains respond to musical stimuli. He says that music takes the place of conventional medicine when it fails.
He goes in depth and explains that when Neurologists look at brain scans of musicians against people who don't pursue any form of music, their brains light up much brighter during the scans. They think more, they process more, they feel more.
He takes time to play his violin to the crowd, showing them the power of music and how his tune is calming to all who hear it.