Music is a Catch-22. It helps us get through the hard times, and it places memories on the fun times. But sometimes -- often -- music reminds us of the things we've tried so hard to forget. I, myself, have music playing in the background any chance I get... as I'm getting ready in the morning, when I'm driving, when I'm walking from class to class, when I'm sitting at the park reading, when I'm riding my bicycle... and the list goes on. And sometimes, often, a song comes on the radio or on my iTunes list and it surprises me. Edwin McCain's "I'll Be" takes me back to the eighth grade when I wasn't the cool kid, and all of the popular girls were talking about how much they loved that song -- my favorite song -- and, just for a moment, I didn't think I was all that uncool. Dashboard Confessional's "Bend and Not Break" takes me back to senior year of high school, where I drove twenty minutes to get to my boyfriend's house, listening to this song on repeat, only to discover that he and I were not going to make it much further. And Eric Clapton's "Layla" brings to me to the age of seven, when I listened to this song -- for the first time, I swear -- and I already knew the words and the melody. I thought I was a child prodigy of music... that, or someone stole the song from inside my head.
The good and the bad -- songs remember for us. I can't imagine a life without music, and, honestly, I don't want to imagine a world without it.
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