Been refocusing my life on the “arts” the last few weeks. A lot more music and even got a library card. Only book I’ve read so far is Dexter By Design, and merely because I like the television show, but it still counts. Next book is Howie Mandel’s memoirs. It fascinated me because of his life with OCD and my own (albeit minor) experiences with it as well. Less then hundred pages in, but pretty good thus far.

Was reading Dean’s site and he talked about how his books sparked memories for him. While I haven’t read nearly the volume of literature that the English Major has (let’s just say he’s read so much he should be promoted to Colonel by now, *da dum CHING*)… I’d say I have the same feeling about music. Songs, artists all spark memories from my past. Some of the songs really don’t have any specific memory but it never fails to make me think of a particular person.

“Freshman” by The Verve Pipe was my first “song” I ever had with a girl. 7th Grade with Courtney Ross and we danced to it being played by some awful student band cover. Regardless of this one occurrence and we never really listened to the song again together, it stuck. It’s a strange song to dance to, even a stranger song for it to be a couple’s song but hey, we were merely 7th graders.

After that, pretty much just artists in general remind me of my timeline with girlfriends or crushes on girls I’ve had. All-American Rejects (Highschool), Switchfoot (Freshman year of college), The Clarks, Hellogoodbye (Next two years of college), The Format (Post-Graduation) … I still listen to all these bands but when they come on unexpectedly or surprisingly my mind immediately is thrown into the past and they are the initial thought I have. Luckily I don’t have any negative past events that prevent me from listening to music I regularly enjoy. Closest I have to that is any song from Dirty Dancing makes me remember the endless hours (an exaggerated three years straight if memory serves me) that my sisters watched that movie. Nobody puts baby in the corner but when that movie comes on I hope somebody puts the television through the window.

So as I’ve brought music back into my life (both new and old) it’s been refreshing going down memory lane. I encourage others to do the same. Listen to some songs you haven’t in a few years and see what memories they bring up. The soundtrack of your life.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009 at 6:51 pm and is filed under everyday life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.