A strong, proud Jamaican woman with a fierce love for music. My role model is my high school music teacher, Alisson Morris. She juggles teaching her music students in and outside of high school, directing the Hampton School (that’s my high school) Mass Choir, and conducting the Blueprint Steel Band, as well as the Genesis Steel Band in St. Elizabeth, Jamaica. She often writes and composes songs and renditions in a reggae style for both the choir and the band. I admire the fact that she is so dedicated to her job. She’s the first person I know outside of my family who truly enjoys what she does for a living. That sort of passion is something I haven’t found yet, and it drives me to keep going until I do.
However, at the time, I did think that music was my passion. Ms. Morris was the one who opened that gateway for me. Because of her, music was one of the first things that I took a sincere approach to. Prior to seventh grade, schoolwork wasn’t a thing that really posed a problem for me, because I always had family supporting me. Yet, when it came to music, there wasn’t much they could offer outside of encouragement. The process of learning music, and then practicing on a regular basis to improve my skills required a conscious effort on my part.
It was frustrating when I couldn’t get a scale or a song right even after hours of practice, yet I didn’t come to resent or eventually reject music in the way that I gave up sports, dance, or any other extracurricular activities that my parents threw at me in an attempt to discover what my talents were. I saw this in Ms. Morris’ everyday life—her struggle with the girls in the choir to get the right note or harmony, or her struggle with me and other students to move forward with a classical piece—and I realized that even though her job probably stressed her out a lot, her love for music, the family that she created from the choir and band, and her loyalty to Hampton School all made it worth the harder, not-so-fun days.
Every other year, my school would have a concert dubbed Echoes, in which the Hampton mass choir and the Blue Print Steel band would come together in an array of songs and perform for all the parish of St. Elizabeth to see all our hard work polished and prettied up… Everyone—including herself—knows Ms. Morris to be a perfectionist. From day one, she taught us ladies to never settle for second best—at least not in our own eyes. We have around half an hour to practice every morning, and we always make the best of it. When new recruits for the choir come in each school year, Ms. Morris is met with a large set of extremely talented yet untrained voices that she must diligently polish to bring out the best sound for a choir that harmonizes in a way that blows the audience away. It was through her I learned that all the little details can add up to make your performance what it is.
Being a member of the school choir for five years, I learned that small things like keeping an animated face while singing and dancing expressively to the beat of the music—regardless of what anyone else thought of me—actually did wonders for my performance. Ms. Morris appreciates all genres of music, but anyone who knows her can tell you that reggae is her favorite. From the legendary Bob Marley to Desmond Dekker, she gets most of her musical inspiration from the genre of music that her home country, Jamaica, is so widely known for. Her love for reggae might come from listening to it so much as a child growing up—or simply because it’s such an integral aspect of the culture that she holds so close to her heart.
During my early teenage years especially, I resented and sometimes believed the outside world’s view of Jamaica as some sort of deserted island full of people constantly high on ganja (marijuana), despite the beautiful environment that I witnessed every day which proved otherwise. Seeing this woman—who I have such deep respect for—so filled with pride in her Jamaican roots filled me with shame for ever being embarrassed about the beautiful island that I grew up on. Alisson Morris is and will most likely always be my number one role model.