For 16 years, in moments scattered throughout, there has been a spectrum of emotions that I've gone through around a simple, bulky kitchen radio. Whether it had been static noise, a blast of music, or news, there was always an emotion present. It all depended on what boomed out of the radio. One day I could feel relaxed, the next scared, or anxious, excited, happy, etc.. There has almost never been a day that I get home and that radio isn't on. Since we first got it when we moved to Brighton from Mexico, as a housewarming present, it feels like it's been a huge part of my family in the littlest of ways ever since. It's something that has united my family together on many occasions. It's the radio where I heard the album of the singer who’s concert was my first, it's where hope united me and my parents for moments on end. It's where we've heard news that crashed into our lives on so many instances, it's the device that seems to give our house life with the music that booms out of it when we all get together. AM or FM, this radio is of great value to me for all that I've heard through it.

On the surface, the radio isn't more than a bulky 90's radio that looks straight out of any typical family's home. The radio is tan with dark green borders and a digital panel that flashes the time in bright red, around some few tan and green buttons. The radio itself is actually pretty ugly now that I think about it, yet it doesn't lose it's potential. There’s two main uses for the radio, those being music and news. I've played albums from The XX, Lorde, Florence and the Machine and Marina and the Di-amonds endlessly on that radio. When family comes over, my dad puts on his music and raises the vol-ume as much as possible. It's my favorite use for the Radio. The second use that brings us all into the kitchen is news. I remember 1 instance where news was critical. It was when a live vote over thousands and thousands of petitions from undocumented immigrants to gain citizenship was held, which me and my parents listened to from beginning to end. When something was important, good or bad, my family was there, altogether, gathered around our kitchen radio. As you can tell, both amazing and unfortunate moments have been spent by that kitchen radio.

I remember driving home from target when Lorde's album “Pure Heroine” was released. I bought the smooth black and white CD with Lorde's emblem on it and was planning on playing it on the radio as soon as I got home. When I got home, I slipped the CD into the clunky radio and heard it make a number of sounds while it loaded the CD. Then, “Tennis Court” began to play first and right away. I became infatuated with every single song in her album, and I knew that I had to see her live. On September 28th of that year, I went and saw her at the 1st Bank Center with a couple of friends. It was one of the most euphoric days of my life since we were front row and it brought a bunch of people with the same love for her together. To think that hearing a simple album I listened to out of curiosity were to take me there only months later. Not all that I've heard from our radio has been as joyous as that day though. Around 2009, me and my parents sat around our round wooden kitchen table listening attentively to the radio. A live vote on immigration status and opportunities for citizenship was being voiced after a famous Latino radio host named,“ El Piolin”, took the time to gather thousands upon thousands of petitions that undocumented Latino's and supporters of them all over the country signed. My parents had signed the petition and gotten many other people to help us out in signing as many times as we could. That was the day we would find out if the petitions had any affect at all. Live on the radio, with tension in the room, we heard each congress man say “Yes” or “No” This went on for quite a while it felt like. It could have just been that we were nervous and it felt like an eternity. Finally it all became known. We didn't get enough votes, we didn't gain any rights, any citizenship, and for a moment, there was little to no hope in the room. My parents were extremely upset, almost melancholy. We just sat there, not really comprehending what was our next step. My mom simply stated “ I don't understand why borders and fences have to separate us”, and I couldn't agree more to this day.

Over the years, I've noticed how much happiness and shock this Kitchen Radio has brought into my life. At anytime during the day, that radio could voice any type of news or music and it'd leave me to conjoin with either my family, or friends in a variety of ways. No matter what I hear through this radio, it will hold value to me because it's something that I've grown up with. Not only that, but before I had a phone or laptop, it was the only way to hear music and pass the time, it was the only way I knew a tornado was around, it was the only way I could hear about a concert or festival. The radio was my only ultimate and huge contact with everything social. Everything about this radio, from its color, to the bulkiness of it, to everything I've heard from it, good and bad, I value to this day.