For as long as I can remember music has been a huge part of my life. Some of my earliest memories come from songs, dances, and performances I did as a small child. One distinct memory I have is acting out scenes from ‘The Wizard of Oz’ as a toddler, no more than three or four. I sang “follow the yellow brick road” skipping through the living room while the movie played. In my version though, Dorothy (played by me) fell into a fountain in Munchkinland and needed a costume change. I made a creative (and dramatic) change. 

My performances continued as I grew older. I was forever making up dances in my bedrooms and the basements of houses we lived in throughout my childhood- putting together a set list of specific songs with special choreography. I created mixtapes on cassettes, with the help of my karaoke machine and the mad dash to hit record when a specific song finally played on the radio. I’d also play songs from different CDs in a certain order to create a storyline for the mini concerts I was putting on for no one. I never performed any of these mini concerts for anyone else but me. The world I created within music was, and still is, my own. 

Now that I’m older, there’s a lot less dancing, but I still like to live in a world made of music. I take great pride in curating the perfect playlist for anything and everything you can think of. I have playlists dedicated to cities, road trips, artists, decades, and my life. I even created a playlist for my May musing on whimsy! And spoiler alert, you bet there’s going to be a playlist for this musing too! Hint: it’s at the end of the post (wink).  

Music is so many things to me- a mood booster, soul balm, a therapy session, and a time machine. A lot of music is connected to different parts of my life. Many times, a song can take me right back to a place or a feeling of the past. My high school best friend and I met up at Lake Erie last month and she drove us around playing a mix CD I made her- it took me right back to 2009/2010 when I would listen to those songs in my first Columbus apartment, driving across town to my first full-time job in higher education, and hanging out with my friends and puppy dog. Oh, how my life has changed in those fifteen years since then!

I actually still have all of the mix CDs I’ve made over the years along with all my playlists on Spotify and Apple Music. Each mixtape, mix CD, and playlist is like a special diary entry into what was going on in my life when they were created. It’s fun to revisit them every now and again- so many songs I forgot I once loved, but still somehow know all the words to.

In high school, I reconnected with my elementary school best friend a few years after I moved away. We were driving somewhere with the radio playing, and as I was singing along to every song, she looked over and said, “you still know all the words to the songs on the radio?!” Yes, yes, I do. I probably could have also sang some of our elementary school concert songs for her at that time too (with choreography). Sadly, I don’t listen to the radio much anymore, I’m usually down the rabbit hole of Taylor Swift or Beyoncé’s discography, especially in recent years; but if you put on the throwback or classic station, I can probably still show off my musical knowledge. 

I’m not exactly sure where my love of music came from- it feels like it was always a part of my life. My parents also loved music, and they were the first to influence my musical tastes. As I grew older, I expanded my musical horizons into new genres. Because of this, you can find a wide variety of music in my catalog. From Johnny Cash to Green Day to Taylor Swift to Eminem and everything in between, I love all different kinds of music. I also love to find new music to listen to as well.  

If I’m not actively listening to music, there is still music going on in my head. My first thought in the morning usually comes in the form of song lyrics. And they can be random- from a song I was playing the day before to one I haven’t heard in years. They can also be out of season songs, with a Christmas classic showing up in the middle of July.

With a constant soundtrack in my head, I tend to either be humming or just out loud singing all the time. If we’re in conversation together and you say something that inspires a musical response, I will sing it to you. Just ask anyone who has ever worked with me. (Cue TI’s ‘Whatever you like’). Fear not, I do know when it’s appropriate to be quiet but know the music in my head has not stopped.

Even writing this musing has brought out the music in me, taking a mini break to play a couple of my favorite songs at the moment that inspired this month’s musing (Listen to Cam’s “All Things Light” album).

I love the way music makes me feel, which is probably the reason why I consistently go back to it. I can lose myself in the beat, or feel emotions I didn’t know I had, or just forget everything going on in the world and jam. There is a comfort in your favorite songs. There is fun in your favorite beats. And you can find yourself in your favorite lyrics that somehow say exactly how you feel. 

A Playlist: These are a few of my favorite songs…