Blog Post# 2 Sounds in the Streets

My job is approximately 1.5 miles away from my house. So that means I walk nearly 3 miles every day and until this assignment I never realized that I never paid attention to the sounds around me. I’ve always drowned out the world with my music in my ear when I walk because I thought it made it easier to concentrate. Yesterday I decided to take off the headphone and for once, just listen. It was loud and kind of jarring at first. I walk down a busy street in Astoria, one that is constantly filled with people and cars. The sounds of cars honking and loud music blasting from their stereos followed me all the way to work and on my way back home. On my way to work I passed by one middle school and one high school and a day care center so the sounds of children screaming, crying, laughing, cursing, chatting were almost constantly in my ear as I walked passed each block. I heard the sound of the public bus opening and closing it’s doors, the weird sound the bus seems to make every time it stops and has to move again, almost like a groan. I heard birds singing and I heard dogs barking. I heard the loud sounds of the police sirens as they sped down the street followed by the loud, piercing sound of the ambulance and I almost wanted to cover my ear again because the sound was so annoying. I walked behind an old man with a cane and I heard the scraping sound of his cane every time he dragged it with his next step. I heard the loud POP of a little girl’s bubblegum as she blew a bubble and popped it with her finger. So many little sounds that I'd never paid attention to, until yesterday. Until I stopped trying to cancel out the sounds around me and actually listen.

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