Upon graduation, some thoughts on finding YOUR music.

Ryan Adams, on his criminally underappreciated record Rock’n’Roll, sang it best when he howled, “This is it. This is really happening.” While he wasn’t singing about graduating college — it’s time to say goodbye.

Farewells in rock’n’roll are a tricky business, though, and have historically come in many forms. There’s the KISS model, in which farewell actually means, “Goodbye until next year, when we decide to launch another farewell tour. That’ll be our 12th!” Then there’s the Nirvana model, when goodbye really does mean, um, goodbye. Like, forever. Too soon?

Nonetheless, there’s an important message that must be sent before bowing out of academia.

Take some time, as much as you need, maybe years, and find the music that actually affects you. Simple enough, right? Well, sort of.

For many of us, there’s a general apathy towards our choice of music, or art, or movies or any form of creative expression. If it’s on the radio, we’ll listen to it. If it’s playing on MTV (do they play videos anymore?), we’ll watch it.

And for many people, that’s worked out just fine. Maybe you’re not a music person, particularly, and the beat of the new Flo Rida jam makes you smile. And that seems good enough.

But there’s a huge world of music out there waiting to be discovered, and it’s filled with things that won’t just make you smile — they’ll change your life. I don’t care how ‘not that into music’ you are (people who list “Everything. Except country” on Facebook, I’m talking to you), I promise that there is a song out there — hell, maybe even a whole genre — that will change how you think about life.

Sound silly? Maybe I’m just a music nut idealist. Were the tables turned and an engineering major told me there was an equation out there that would change my life, sure, I’d have trouble believing him.

But there’s something about music that is so purely human, so organic and emotional, that even the most robotic engineering student will feel something. The same argument could be made for film, for literature, for dance — and to that, I say go and explore those mediums too.

But don’t spend your life listening to whatever’s convenient. Especially in this world of technology, when any song in any genre is literally a few mouse clicks away, there are no excuses left to keep yourself in the dark from the music that could, and will, change you forever.

And that music, the earth-shattering, life-moving stuff, is different for everybody. The argument could certainly be made that Lupe Fiasco or Nas are more inspiring rappers than Flo Rida, but if Flo Rida really, truly moves you then run with it.

The point is that some music, whatever it is or however awful people like me might think it is, it’s your duty, as an emotionally-driven and intelligent person, to find it.

Don’t let critics or your friends influence you with this, either — no matter how much I hate Nickelback and wish that the band and all its music would be shot to one of Jupiter’s moons and legislation would be passed to banish any mention of Nickelback or Chad Kroeger for the rest of time, leaving the world a much better and bullshit-free place, the truth is that some people are actually moved by that music.

And if you are one of those people truly affected by lyrics about blowjobs and strippers, then, though it pains me to say this, more power to you. I wish my mind were as simple as yours.

Now your search might take some work. If your search for meaningful music truthfully starts and ends on Top 40 radio (I could believe avid card enthusiasts to be emotionally stirred by “Poker Face”) then maybe you are luckier than the rest of us.

For most people, though, the search could be long and hard — you may need to dig through your old favorites, listen hard to friends’ iTunes, search through tons of music online.

My progression began with Boyz II Men, dancing around the living room with my dad. Then somehow on to Hendrix and Zeppelin, through Saves the Day and Thursday, through The Decemberists and Jeff Buckley and, maybe most importantly, The Grateful Dead among countless others. What a long, strange trip it’s been indeed.

But, hey, you can do it. You’re a Pitt student, educated more than most people in the world. And I’ll even give you a suggestion, quite appropriate for those of us feeling scared and crazed and exhilarated about moving into the real world next week — “So Alive” by (can you see a trend?) Ryan Adams.

It’ll blow you right over.