Ninty: the number of songs posted to See. Like. Blog. since its inception last August. It is odd to think about time relative to number of posts published, words written or songs discovered. Compiling this Spotify playlist was both cathartic and a little eerie; there are still memories closely tied to these melodies and replaying them in succession was like sorting through a stowed-away box of old photographs. The moments are a bit faded now, but nonetheless preserved, snapshots that, when assembled, provide the progression of my life. This feels like a good, almost serendipitous, way to start out the new year — looking at the past, living in the present and imagining the future.
Here’s to another year and another ninty songs to add to the list. More adventures and sweet music to come.
A big hi hello everyone! It has been three long months since my last update on SLB, and during that time I didn’t go more than a day without thinking about the blog in some fashion. There would be moments where a burst of inspiration would hit me, or I would see or hear something that I was just itching to share with you all. So you might be wondering what’s the deal with my absence?
This semester I floated to the deep end of the pool, leaving behind my water wings and life vest. Comparing my life at school to swimming may sound a little odd at first, but it’s a metaphor that has stuck in my mind for some time now. I feel like growing up it was common for swimming to be a simplistic analogy for life; “just keep swimming”, “you’re gonna sink or swim”, “you can either choose to tread water or to float”, “jumping into the deep end”, etc. In my second to last semester in school, these sayings are becoming more and more relevant. The wall between my current life and the “real world” is slowly starting to crumble; I am getting small glimpses of what lies ahead, but I am unable to start moving forward. Right now it’s all about choices, state of mind and circumstances.
So what’s the difference between the deep end and everywhere else? The deep end is when shit starts getting real. For a graphic designer, the deep end is when it’s you, your work, and the awaiting judgment of prospective employers. For every senior in college, the deep end is a holding pattern, a time when we can either frantically tread water or float. As for me, I’ve been treading, hoping that eventually I will catch my breath again.
I know this post is laced with nerves and anxiety (not to mention quite the lengthy metaphor); I can assure you, the fun stuff is coming down the pike and I couldn’t be more excited.
While giving a full play-by-play of my last three months would be time-consuming (both to write and to read), I can fast forward to the good bits and provide a musical “synopsis”, if you will:
Think of this audible goodness as a bit of a consolation prize for tolerating my wild musings about the current state of my life and its controlled chaos. Pretty soon, I’ll be back in the kiddie pool, splashing around, umbrella drink in hand, getting my tan on. Right now, I’ve just gotta keep breathing, head faced skyward and arms outstretched.
Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and life to everything.
– Plato
It is commonly known that your sense of smell is one of the most powerful when it comes to evoking memory. While I am not challenging this notion (any whiff of aspen or pine trees sends me right back to my summer camp in Colorado), I believe that music can be just as powerful of a memory bank.
I’ve realized that over the years, I have collected a few “musical milestones” — a song that instantly transports you back to a point in your life, carries you away into nostalgia and recollection. A song can sometimes define certain turning points better than any other media — it captures emotion through chords and lyric and preserves it.
Here are some of the songs that make up my most notable “musical milestones” and the memories to which they are tied:
Moving to San Antonio, Texas (Fall 2008)
Montreal (Summer 2009)
Moving to Las Vegas (Summer 2010)
Freshman year fall (2010)
Sophomore year spring (2012)
Junior year fall (2012)
New York City (Summer 2013)
In just two days, I will be celebrating the one year anniversary of See. Like. Blog. In some ways, I cannot believe it has already been a year — time has flown thanks to a generous series of adventures, of which I could have never imagined when I started writing last August. I am different from where I began and this post is particularly significant because it gives me a chance to reflect on the big changes that have occurred thus far. These definitive shifts have been happy, sad, scary, exciting, joyful, awe-inspiring and, combined, have shaped me into the person writing all of these thoughts tonight. I hope you, my readers (and listeners), have enjoyed my musical milestones, as I hold these songs closest to my heart.
