Come On, Eileen was my morning alarm for a little while my freshman year of college. It really did help me get out of bed in a good mood for a while. I told my mom that and she says that now she always thinks of me when she hears it! Is it my favorite song? No, but now when I hear it I am reminded of my younger days and also my Mom.

When I was in elementary school I loved the Tarzan soundtrack, especially Strangers Like Me (sang by Phil Collins, even in the german version). I listened to it so much that my parents, who also originally enjoyed the song, got really annoyed by it. My dad then told me "The guy, who sang this song, also has a band" and he made me a Genesis CD. That's how I formed my taste in music at age 8.

"Glass, Concrete & Stone" by David Byrne always takes me back to my freshman year of college (which admittedly wasn't that long ago, I'm a junior now). I remember really struggling with perspective when I first got to college. I spent a lot of time wandering around baffled that the concept of a university (or human civilization, really) existed at all, while all of my peers seemed to just get it as if all of this was an inevitable fact of human existence. "Glass, Concrete & Stone" made me feel a little less alone while I figured out how to process the place around me and connect with my peers.

I turned 31 on the first day of autumn in 2019, and I spent it far away from my home in Texas, experiencing actual autumn in London, England. The day started off difficult, but it ended a bit drizzly (my favorite) with me dancing alone in a cemetery to Holocene by Bon Iver. Every time I hear the song, I’m taken back to that moment of tranquility, two months before my favorite person in the world died in November, and 3 months before the beginning of Covid-19. It’s such a special time capsule.

Forever and always I will be transported back to the hormonal years of middle school when I hear Billy Joel’s “For The Longest Time”. I was in a singing and dancing ensemble (think glee but real) and surrounded by other teens in ill fitting suits and clouds of spray deodorant. What a time.

In 2010 my third grade class competed in a very intense dance off with another third grade class. We danced our butts off to Dynamite by Taio Cruz and were told we won (the other classes also thought they won). In the few times I’ve heard the song since, the moves and sights and sounds come right back to me.

Free Fallin by Tom Petty takes me back to summer camp when I was a teenager. It was the first place I really felt free from a stressful home life and it makes me feel that way whenever I hear it.

For me it's All Star by Smash Mouth. It brings me back to 2009, the first summer I spent with my girlfriend of 16 years now! We listened to this song and many others on the back patio, getting to know each other.

I always associate songs with places and memories, and one of my favorites is “Meet Me In The Woods” by Lord Huron. I always associate it with my time at a biological station, taking my favorite biology classes, living in the woods, and meeting awesome friends. I especially love the line “I took a little journey to the unknown / And I’ve come back changed I can feel it in my bones” and I think it describes my experience perfectly <3

The first time I ever consciously listened to the Beatles was when I was 12 and my mom bought me my first album, the Love soundtrack. I remember driving home in the dark and watching the rain drops slide down the window as I heard "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" for the first time. The music opened up a whole new world to me and I still think of my life in two parts, before and after The Beatles.