Summer always rolls around eventually, whether you get to experience it as a time of fun or work. In high school it’s the best time ever because you have no real responsibilities, and get to hang out with friends all day, every day. College is a bit different, because your friends all live in different parts of the country. It can get pretty lonely, and so you can’t wait for summer to end and school to start up again. There’s no getting past those three months though. You can, at least, make it as great as possible. What better way than to do that than with music?
Some nights are all-night party extravaganza’s with the newest EDM. Crazy light shows and dancing all around would be really weird if there was no loud and amazing music to fill the room. And the drop. Oh, the drop can be followed by a feeling a extreme euphoria that is as intense as the moment, and probably is the reason for it. But other nights are not so loud, they are more mellow. It may be a tune you fall asleep to, or watch the stars and get into an existential mindset. Every song you listen to must match the mood, or it just doesn’t feel right.
You can’t fall asleep to death metal. Or maybe you can and you’re more extreme than most. And you can’t have a night of hardcore dancing to Jack Johnson. Or maybe you can and you’re more extreme than most. Finding the right song to match the mood is really hard to do. So when you find that one song, the instrument(s) and singer that hits the tone of your mood perfectly, it’s hard to imagine a better feeling.
“Music will help dissolve your perplexities and purify your character and sensibilities, and in time of care and sorrow, will keep a fountain of joy alive in you.” - Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
Music has existed for as long as we have. It’s too important to us to live without. It’s what we use to forget pain or remember something beautiful.
I remember when I was around the age of 13, laying in the back of my grandparents RV, listening to a band called One Republic. I had just discovered them. With my earphones in, I played the song "Good Life," and seven years later it is a memory that’s as clear as day. As the mountains rolled by and the RV shook, I had a moment. The song matched my mood so perfectly I decided that life was supposed to be good, and we should be happy about it, and there was little reason to believe otherwise. I still carry this feeling, even though I’ve experienced plenty to change my mind.
Finding the right song is not easy, but when you do, the feeling is nearly incomparable. You may just get lucky and get the rare sensation that your body is transcending into a godly vessel, that you can conquer nations with your thoughts alone. You’ll find many more in your life as long as you listen for them.
Music gives you unique feelings, and it makes memories associated to those feelings. Music and emotions are tightly tethered together in the same way a story is tied to the imagination. If you ever want to remember a moment in your life, play a good song and maybe every other time you listen to it, you’ll remember that moment.
