ROCK Center Ride

Visiting Florida Gulf Coast University / Fort Myers, for a meeting with Maria Roca, director of the “Roots of Compassion & Kindness (ROCK) Center,” she is an exceptional professor who is very popular at the still-young but rapidly growing FGCU – a campus so vast it could be a small town – where I loved exploring the untamed nature by bike; the university has been meeting all of its electricity needs entirely through its own solar power systems for many years now.

Style:

Indie-pop with a driving midtempo groove, brushed drums and plucked electric guitar over warm synth pads; verse stays close-mic and story-driven, pre-chorus opens with layered harmonies and a rising tom build, chorus lands wide with group vocals on the hook, Add bike-chain percussion, solar-chime accents, and a soft reverse swell into each chorus, Bright, clean, spacious mix, rock

Dauer: 3:49

[Verse 1]

Today I rolled into FGCU

Fort Myers on my mind

A campus wide as a small town

with trails that twist through pine

I saw the wild grass swaying

past the wheel and the path

and every turn kept saying

keep going, don’t look back

[Pre-Chorus]

Then I found the door with your name

Maria Roca on the sign

Roots of Compassion and Kindness

right there, alive inside

[Chorus]

ROCK, ROCK, shine on me

ROCK, ROCK, make us see

Roots of compassion

Roots of kindness

ROCK, ROCK, set it free

(ROCK, ROCK)

[Verse 2]

You’re an exceptional teacher

the kind folks talk about

young campus, growing faster

but your room pulls everyone out

I heard your students laughing

like they already knew

how one good heart can guide a crowd

and make a place feel new

[Pre-Chorus]

Then I found the door with your name

Maria Roca on the sign

Roots of Compassion and Kindness

right there, alive inside

[Chorus]

ROCK, ROCK, shine on me

ROCK, ROCK, make us see

Roots of compassion

Roots of kindness

ROCK, ROCK, set it free

(ROCK, ROCK)

[Bridge]

And all that power in the sunlight

running every hall all day

year after year, that clean light

keeps the whole place raised

I rode past open water

through the untamed green

and I thought, this is what it means

to build a future clean

[Final Chorus]

ROCK, ROCK, shine on me

ROCK, ROCK, make us see

Roots of compassion

Roots of kindness

ROCK, ROCK, set it free

ROCK, ROCK, carry me

(ROCK, ROCK)

(ROCK, ROCK)