“We are all in this together” as one of my supervisors at a past job would often tell me. There are many traits in life that the average individual must have to be a well rounded, successful person. Which is why, without a doubt tolerance is one of the most important traits we can have as a social species. Being raised in a Jewish by heritage family; I was already exposed to many things that were diversity and tolerance. However, throughout the many stories of my life as I like to call them, there is one specific that aided in my development in a way no one around me would have ever guessed.


Music is something I have held dear to me, for what is going to be nine years now I have participated in orchestra, playing the violin and the viola. It is something I do for me; to feel accomplished to know I worked hard for something, from solo’s to full orchestra pieces. When it comes to orchestra pieces, us students never really got a say in the choice of music. Everyone has different taste though and an individual’s preference did not decided for the whole orchestra. This is why, during the holiday season one Jewish boys obvious distaste in Christmas music led to a great development in tolerance skills. Year after year, since our first holiday concert back in the third grade we have played Christmas music. The same few songs got very old very quickly for me.

In the beginning it was an all out hatred of all holiday music for me. Every year the inevitable Christmas concert would come without fail. Looking back now, how I survived all of those years is still not one-hundred percent clear to me. What I do know is at some point along the road, being able to not let the small things such as music I did not want to play get in the way of my long-term goals. Such goals include continuing music as an adult outside of school.

I have no hard feelings towards anyone who enjoys Christmas music, it is just not what I prefer when it came to not having a say in music selections. That is what makes us all who we are, everyone is different. That is why tolerance is such an important thing for everyone to have. How we develop these life skills can vary in many ways, but the importance is being able to tolerate everyone and everything, even if it is something as bizarre as Christmas music.