Desmond’s Music: Her Life Through Songs

Musicians often use their craft to express past experiences and strong feelings, and St. Thomas Universities Sarah Desmond is no different.

Desmond is a first-year student at STU who puts her love of creative writing to use by writing songs about her personal life and performing them for friends and loved ones using her voice and a guitar.

Inspired by her large family, she began singing at the age of 14 during family gatherings. Her family would often gather for the purpose of making music.

“I have like a super big family that always likes to get together and invite the whole neighborhood over and then my uncle’s would play guitar. And I started joining them when I was like, 14, so I did that. That’s when I started singing for people,” said Desmond.

With this type of exposure to music for her whole childhood, joining them at 14 to play in front of the small crowds was natural.

At the time, she sang for enjoyment, but her passion truly sparked at age 16 when she was given her uncles guitar. He passed away when she was 13. He was an inspiration to her not just for music, but as a role model in many aspects of life.

“One of the uncles that would like singing all these parties passed away when I was 13. And then we opened his guitar for the first time when I was 16. After he died, and I found a song he never finished in it. So I was like, oh, I should finish this and give it to my aunt for Christmas. So I took a song and I finished it,” said Desmond.

Her uncle loved writing original pieces just as she does now, and when she finished her uncles final unfinished project, it was an emotional Christmas gift for her aunt.

Partially writing her first song inspired her to continue exploring her musical abilities. Desmond has had a lot of time to discover what types of songs she prefers writing, and she now only writes songs involving personal matters of hers. Whether it’s romantic ventures, addiction, or just emotional situations, she feels it is the best way for her to express her pain and get the emotions out in a healthy way.

“I like singing about guys because it helps me get my feelings out about them. And they’re easy. There’s a lot of good material in them. And addiction, probably because it’s a part of myself that I don’t talk about often. So singing about it helps me like express it well,” said Desmond.

While most people prefer to keep their personal matters to themselves, Desmond welcomes anyone to listen to her music and potentially relate to her issues. She believes that if her songs can help someone going through a difficult time, then she can feel more satisfied with herself. But not only will she write about her own issues and allow others to listen, but she will even write songs for her friends and family about difficult times they are going through.