At first I was just going to put my favorite songs and be done with it but I decided that it’d be meatier to go through the years and mark each sort of chapter in my life with a song that captures it perfectly, so here we go.
Popped My Cherry: Brooks & Dunn – “Neon Moon”
Every kid learns cliché songs at around five years old like “Itsy Bitsy Spider,” “Mary Had a Little Lamb”, and other kindergarten staples. So yeah, this was the first song I ever attached myself to that wasn’t on a Barney soundtrack and it instilled in me a lifelong appreciation of Country.
Untouchable: Blind Melon – “No Rain”
No song, past or present, will ever replace this as my all time favorite.
Teeny Boppers Never Say Die: Backstreet Boys – “As Long As You Love Me”
This isn’t my go-to when it comes to the boy band that’s forever in my heart, but it was the first song of theirs I happened to see on MTV and it took milliseconds for those five dudes to take control of my life.
Middle School Blues: Good Charlotte – “The Click”
For some reason I thought liking this band made me really cool and when you’re an adolescent no one can tell you otherwise. Good Charlotte is the best representation of my three years in junior high and this song is the sum of it all. It was also the theme song for one of the best things MTV has ever done, Undergrads.
Escape Route: The Used – “Taste of Ink”
Cabazon, CA is a place I’d never want to call home again and I swore at a young age that’d I’d leave as soon as I could. At 16 this song became the anthem for those sentiments and played in the back of my mind up until the day I moved away to college.
Writer’s Guide: New Found Glory – “Truth of My Youth”
Putting pen to paper and, later, words on digital planes has been my happy place for almost fifteen years. Currently I write approximately 150-200 things a month, so yes, “my thoughts written down on paper, it’s my only savior.”
Questioning Choices: Matchbox Twenty – “Hand Me Down”
It’s that second when you think you’re ready for the real world and have to recollect and readjust to get a grasp…
Summer of Doom: Limp Bizkit – “Break Stuff”
I kind of didn’t adjust as much as I would’ve liked and after I graduated college I had to move home for the summer and sprained my arm so bad it looked like the aftermath of a BMX stunt gone wrong. Ironically enough this isn’t just one of the greatest songs ever but the first one I heard the morning I took a dive down the stairs.
Bus Breakdowns: The Tower and The Fool – “Scoliosis”
I was stuck in a job I loathed and had had enough. Basically this song saved me from having a major meltdown on the 761 through the Sepulveda Pass.
Current Mentality: Paramore – “Grow Up”
It’s a week before I step even closer to 30 and it’s a terrifying thought that I’ve accomplished very little in comparison to friends and family but “all of us have to grow up sometime.” I just think I’m taking the scenic route and am trying to not let my failures overshadow the little inklings of light along the way.
