The decision to take this honors seminar, taught by Dr. Stefan Fiol, was one of the best choices I had made all first semester. I took this course at first to maintain a musical presence in my life since high school band no longer continued for me. I quickly learned that this course did not just teach me about the music in different parts of the world, but it also taught me why people are connected to music in the way that they are. We learned how icons (resemblance), indices (co-occurrence), and symbols (linguistic definition) emotionally tied us to certain experiences. We used those semiotics frequently throughout the class. Through actually studying various regions of the world, we identified certain identifying elements of the sound and the political, historical, and cultural contexts in which the music and dance were found. While we studied the music, we always looked further than just listening. We played several instruments, danced their dances, sung their songs, and discussed themes of why music means so much to people all around the world.