I was on my way home to Charlotte, enjoying winter break with my family, and in what felt like seconds, I was returning back to my messy apartment, preparing to walk on those red bricks with a heavy book bag. It was as if I had never left NC State. The material world around me would stay the same in 2017, but should I do the same?

Like everyone, I look to change in positive ways this year, with the objective of being a better person than I was last year. I will share with you all one of my resolutions for the New Year — particularly to help those Latinx students like me.

I learned last semester about the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, who talked about existence and its values being empty without basis. He was a very negative person, but he found optimism in art and philosophy.

I have been filling my life with these things through discovering and studying my Mexican culture. I started doing this because I was scared of losing my knowledge of my cultural roots living in the United States, but in doing that, I discovered treasures that have changed my life both emotionally and intellectually. Therefore, it is my resolution for 2017 to continue to get involved with my culture, and you all can find those treasures, as well.

I found traditional Mexican songs by Bolero Ranchera, and I consider them the most beautiful songs in the world. I have learned so many songs because I love singing along to them, either in public or by myself.

This music is characterized by the use of guitars, violins and trumpets that serve as a magical force, emphasizing the strongest detail of the music: the lyrics. The lyrics have so many feelings that paint images in my mind of romantic nights in Mexico that make me want a love that I do not know or feel pains of problems that I do not have. Almost all of the songs talk about love or pain, sometimes both, and can also be about friendship or Mexican pride.

I find myself singing songs with my parents that I didn’t know that they knew and I also sing with my grandparents songs they knew decades before my birth, which speak of the most beautiful feelings that humans have had and feelings that my grandparents have not forgotten. I ask my fellow Latinx friends very seriously to pursue this interest in cultural music and the beauty of Spanish that may have been forgotten by living in the United States and speaking English for so long. Finding all the feelings that can be said in Spanish but not in English through these songs is something amazing.

With learning this part of the art of the Latin culture, one can find visual art, dances and literature that are unique to each Spanish speaking country. Learning about my culture has given me new music to listen to when I study and has developed my Spanish a lot. Appreciating your Latin culture can open a world of opportunity for yourself, like the possibility of a career, and educating American people who want to know the pleasure of other cultures beyond theirs, such as that of Bolero Ranchera music. We all want to be better people, but we also want to be happy — I promise that you can smile more in life with the art of your Latin culture.