The Soundtrack of my Life

I cannot imagine a day in my life without a soundtrack to guide me in and out the minutes that compose each day. I am not your typical musically numb person, constantly glued to their iPod to escape. I am one of the few people out there, constantly living through the music in my head, without ear buds. There is something about music that completely connects to me to any moment that arises. My mind mentally diagrams the lyrics, the notes, the compositions, the inflections in a singer’s voice; I get lost the tiny details. I have found constancy and stability in those small details. Interestingly enough, I always find it easy to come back from those details that consume me.

The type of music I listen to never really mattered to me. Every type of music tells me a different story. The most comforting aspect of music is its ability to allow me to escape to an easier time in life. I can place my own story within the sheet music and make it completely mine. I can play an early 90’s pop song and I am automatically back on my Gram’s back porch swing, eating watermelon slices, bare feet kissed with sunshine; not one care in the world but the watermelon dripping down my chin. In the same instance, an Adele song can snap me right back to the current college student I have manifested myself as. In a life of changes and times of instability, music somehow staples all the events of my life together. Many times I find myself thankful for its healing powers. Especially in the times when I feel so far from my southern roots, the wonderful world of iTunes can bring me right back. All I have to do is play an old country song to remind me my own upbringing and a southern way of life. I like to think of my iTunes library as a library holding every song that is important in my life.

My adoring love for music and sound is rarely understood by those around me. However, it makes me appreciate music and the power it has that much more. I feel humbled by my ability to use music to bring me home, wherever home is. The times I completely consume myself in every phrase and measure of music, I feel the most joy. It is safe to say I define my life through music. There will be days when my life will be nothing but a wrinkle in time and perhaps I will be without many memories. However, I feel in my heart, music will always remain. No matter what time and space place between the here and now.