Essential for her life

The long “Sleeping at Last” Spotify list, the music lyrics in her head. The calming sounds of a piano. The excitement of attending a musical camp, the fresh and new smell of a musical script. The pleasure of getting to know music better every single day. These feelings and music itself have become essential for freshman Sophie Nims’ daily life as she learns to apply music to her small daily conflicts, such as stress from school.

Nims has been a music lover since she was six years old. In first grade, she started to play the piano. In addition, she has been in choir for five years, and has been in two different musicals. “When I was little, I used to mess around with the piano keyboards and I guess it was what I wanted to play,” said Nims.

Nims was a very curious child and experimented on the keyboard she got as a gift during Christmas one year. She then began taking her interest seriously and started piano lessons. She has been playing the piano for eight years now and could not be more glad about taking her interest seriously.

Piano teacher Valerie Eichhorn described Sophie as a very skilled pianist. “She is one of the top sight readers in my studio, she learned sight reading quickly and just keeps improving,” said Eichhorn. “ Sophie is fun to be around, she has a great sense of humor and always tells it like it is.”

Sophie’s mother Pam Nims is also a strong supporter of Sophie in music. Pam said “ I think music has enriched Sophie’s life for the better. It brings her [and her family] a lot of joy, she’s made new friends, and [music] in general brings her a lot of happiness through performances herself and watching/listening to others’ performances.” It is also been told from Pam that Sophie was influenced by music in movies and movie soundtracks as a child.

According to Nims, she had an amazing experience at Camp Creamery. During her four years of attending this musical camp, she performed in two different musicals. The two musicals she performed in are “School of Rock” and “James and the Giant Peach”. “I’ve enjoyed being on the stage and performing. It was such a great experience,” Nims said.

Despite enjoying music to its fullest, Nims also sees the cons of the music industry. Since almost everyone enjoys music, there is a lot of competition in the music industry. For instance, there were many people trying out for All-state choir this year, with only 28 spots open for quartets.

Knowing music for this long, Nims has learned to use it as a useful resource for different things and a solution to her small daily conflicts. By the end of the day, she still enjoys music very much, and thinks that everyone should have this fascinating experience. “Music is a creative outlet, it helps me to get all my angers out and relieve stress,” Nims said.