Under Half-Lit Fluorescents By Hanif Abdurraqib

Everyone tries to escape reality in their own way. Some choose to read books. Others choose to listen to music. Escape can be different for everyone, but we can live through experiences that are not our own. In Hanif Abdurraqib’s essay “Under Half-Lit Fluorescents: The Wonder Years and the Great Suburban Narrative” he discusses the world we live in and the escape people seek everyday. They run from their own worlds and use music as a way to escape. As people try to escape their own world, they discover that individuals around them are experiencing similar difficulties. They see this through the music they listen to, realizing everyone uses music to escape the sadness, pressure, and the routine in their life. Everyone has hardships in their

It is hard to recover from so much grief, especially with the pressure on you. So what can one do but hide away in a different reality through music? In Hanif Abdurraqib’s essay, he tells us about his own experiences with grief and losing friends over and over again. Abdurraqib says, “...and what are we to do with all of that pressure other than search for a song that lets us be drained of it all?” (Abdurraqib 62). He points out that sometimes all you can do is find a song that comforts you and holds you tight, pulling you away from everyone and everything around you. As a teenager, everyone feels pressure to act like someone they are not. When in public, teenagers hold themselves up highly, striving to fit in. But when they get home, they can let down their facade and relax. They need to escape from the pressure they have faced all day, so they put on music and melt away. “Escape is vital, in some cases, as a survival tool.” says Abdurraqib (Abdurraqib 61). Even those who live in a world that may seem pristine to those on the outside, need to escape too. They feel pressure to hold on to perfection and never let their guard