Month: April 2020

For my last passion blog, I’d like to do something special. If there’s two things I love, it’s music and parallelism. Full circle moments provide me with an unreasonable amount of satisfaction, and because I wrote my first real passion blog on music, I will write my last one on music too.

More than that, I’ve found in this unusual life situation, music feels like the redeeming medium that I can connect with my old life, friends I miss, and growing relationships. Almost every night, I go into my basement, crank up my music, and just dance. The kind of dance where you don’t know exactly where your limbs are going and you’re pretty sure you might have a heart attack, but for one glorious moment, you feel alive.

Here are my top six “no-skip” albums (in order of discovery):

1. Native – One Republic (2014)

This is right about the era that I began to get really invested in music. In my eyes, this album is a masterpiece in that not only is every song a no skipper, but they are each so unique and uplifting and just put me in the best mood. I am certain there is an element of nostalgia for this album too because it was probably my first discovered no skip album. I just remember sitting in the passenger seat of my mom’s Honda Pilot with the windows down feeling the wind on my face while my mom and I screamed “this is life in color”

2. Divide – Ed Sheeran (2017)

This album will forever hold a special place in my heart. The track list is incredibly diverse, and I can think of individual cherished memory and feeling for every single song. When I listen to it, I think of high school soccer, freedom, and my best friend. When this album first came out, my friend just got her driver’s license, but I had yet to get mine. She drove me to school every day, and we’d sit in her little Kia Soul, two fifteen and freshly sixteen-year-old kids screaming their heads off to Castle on the Hill watching the sun rise and cast the road into a burning orange and yellowy glow.

3. GIRL – Maren Morris (2019)

Despite being from Texas, I am not a huge country music fan. However, there are some albums and songs that I can’t help but like, it’s just in my blood. I don’t know if I would classify this album as “country”, but it has a little twang to it. This album has one of those storyteller qualities where every song is so detailed and intricate and tells a specific tale. Maren Morris’ voice is so distinct and soothing that listening to the whole album through is so relaxing and relatable. My favorite song is probably A Song For Everything, but it changes. It reminds me of going to the rodeo with my friends and makes me homesick for my grandparents, good BBQ, and peach cobbler.

4. try hard – The Band CAMINO (2019)

This band is lesser known, but one of my favorites. They released three singles off this album in the summer of 2019 and those songs were the playlist of my life at that moment. I’d blast them in my car with friends driving to our summer camp counselor jobs, graduation parties, and eventually in my room when I moved to Pittsburgh in August. The album itself came out fully the first Friday of class. I remember laying in my dorm bed with headphones on that morning and listening straight through. From that moment on, I listened to it nonstop. The lyrics, guitar riffs, and vibe is unmatched. When I turn on Honest, I just think of walking around campus past the HUB, or working out in White building, or jamming out in my friend’s dorm room.

5. Ctrl – SZA (2017)

I discovered this album when dancing in my friend’s room before we went out and haven’t looked back. There are key songs that stand out more than others, such as Normal Girl, Broken Clocks, and Anything, but I can put it on and not skip. It’s a little different than what I usually listen to, but I like it because I feel like it introduced me into a world of music I hadn’t stumbled upon yet. I smile when it comes on because it reminds me of my friends trying to sing it soulfully as they decide what outfit they want to wear for the night.

6. Fine Line (2019)

This might be my ultimate no skip album. Except for one song (which we just don’t talk about), every song is so unique, and Harry’s voice is so compelling that listening to it is an emotional journey. My friend and I stayed up till midnight to listen to it when it dropped, and then decided we were too tired to fully appreciate it and spent the entire next day in engineering design class listening to it. I’m pretty sure I, along with a lot of my friends, have an unhealthy obsession with Harry Styles, but his music and overall vibe is just so good. Favorite song is nearly impossible with this one, but top two are Adore You and Falling.

I hope you have been inspired to think about your favorite no skip albums and jam out to them. I was listening to all of mine as I wrote each section and I feel A L I V E.

In this blog I want to do a little something different. I’m a very reflective person who loves reminiscing on good times in the past, and I like to think my preferred currency in life is not money or things, but experiences and memories. I would so much rather go somewhere new and have an interesting experience than buy something.

This time is tricky for me now because I feel those interesting worldly experiences have slowed, and it makes me nostalgic. I feel worried about spending my 19^th year, what feels like the beginning of the prime of my life, stuck in the house.

However, I find it helps to think about and be grateful for all the incredible experiences I’ve had in my life so far, and remember an unimaginable amount are still yet to come. So, here are a few of my favorite moments in life so far.

1. The Rodeo

Growing up in Houston, Texas, the Livestock Show and Rodeo is a huge deal, ingrained into the culture of the city itself. From celebrating Go Texan Day in elementary school to attending my first concert to hanging out at NRG stadium with friends on weekend nights in high school, the rodeo represents a fun part of my state culture and childhood.

Typical Rodeo events include watching bull riding, pig racing, carnival games, and consuming an obscene amount of deep-fried food (deep fried Oreos in particular). I didn’t even realize the Rodeo was unique and somewhat strange thing until I was describing “mutton-busting” to my Penn State friends and heard the words “so the little kids see who can hold on and ride the sheep the longest” come out of my mouth. No matter, the Rodeo still holds a special spot in my heart.

2. Grandpa’s Boat

My grandparents live in Austin, Texas and nearly every summer since I was a little kid, we’ve gone boating and water skiing on Lake Travis with the family on my grandpa’s boat. Some of my favorite extended family memories involve skimming across the lake at break-neck speed on an innertube laughing uncontrollably with my cousins. All the grandkids learned how to water ski before we even in double digits, and since I’m the oldest grandkid, it was so fun to witness the younger kids stand up on skis for the first time.

The best part was standing at the bow of the boat, arms outstretched Titanic style, with the wind whipping your hair and face, looking out at the way the boat cut through the water. If the sun was shining bright and the light hit the water just right, it looked like a million little diamonds sparkling across the entire surface of the lake.

3. Paris Night

When I used to live in Belgium, I played for my international school’s soccer and basketball travel team. Instead of travelling to the next city over like we would do in the States, we’d travel to places like Paris or Amsterdam for a game.

(Fun fact: Amanda Lowe in this class also lived in the Netherlands the exact same time I lived in Belgium and played sports too. We figured we probably played each other overseas at some point when we were both twelve: crazy small world.)

But instead of staying in hotels, we would do “housing” where we would stay at the house of a random person on the opposing team. Kind of strange and would never fly in the U.S. but ultimately a cool experience. One such time I had a game in Paris and that night my houser asked around 10 pm if I’d like to do something fun. I was skeptical but decided to go for it.

We took the metro with her dad and eventually arrived at the Place du Trocadero smack dab in front of the Eiffel Tower. It was breathtaking. The night was pitch dark, not a cloud in the sky, the entire tower was lit up in a sparkling display of white lights, and not a soul besides us was there. We sat a sipped hot chocolate and danced on the checkered plaza and I thought to myself “I can’t believe this is my life.”

4. Rainbow Trails, Colorado

I’ve mentioned before I’m a nature nut, but this experience takes the cake. I went on a four-day, three-night backpacking trip with my church group and dad as a chaperone in the beautiful Colorado wilderness, surrounded by breathtaking mountains everywhere you turned.

While it was one of the best experiences of my life, it was also one of the hardest. We were roughing it: no bathrooms, no toilet paper, drinking water from rivers filtered through gravity bags, and carrying 50-pound packs with everything we all would need to survive for four days on our backs. It was all worth it when we peaked Mount Baldy. After roughly three hours of grueling hiking, some places in the underbrush with no trail, we finally reached the peak of the mountain.

One of the happiest moments of my life was standing up there with my dad, doing a full 360 turn with an uninhibited view of the entire valley, eating a celebratory Snickers bar with my friends. Best Snickers I’ve ever tasted in my life.

5. Penn State White-Out Game

Like many of y’all know, this game was special. From the record crowd, all decked-out in white, to the cacophony of unimaginably loud noise that caused Michigan to call a time-out on the first play of the game because they couldn’t even hear the play, this game was when I realized how special Penn State football and culture really is.

Surrounded by my newfound friends and the amazing relationships I had already built after coming to Penn State not knowing a soul, I felt so happy and proud of the life I had built and the place I could call home. We Are.

Writing this blog and reminiscing on these memories was the highlight of my day and a much-needed morale booster. I strongly encourage you to jot down a list of some of your favorite memories in life and remember that there was an incredible before and there will be an incredible after.

I hope everyone is continuing to find success adapting to this situation and is finding new hobbies or fun activities to pursue in the house. If not, no pressure there either, just taking it one day at a time is my motto. For a while now, I’ve loved collecting quotes and hearing how the wisdom of other people living completely different lives than mine still somehow resonates with me. From fortune cookies to team huddles before soccer matches to books, I gather and acquire quotes that strike a chord with me a write them in my journal. Here are some of my favorites.

1. “I am only one but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. I will not refuse to do the something I can do.” – Helen Keller

 

2. “No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.” – Aesop

 

3. “One of the happiest moments in life is when you find the courage to let go of what you can’t change.” – Unknown

 

4. “We need not to be left alone. We need to be really bothered once in a while. How long has it been since you were really bothered? About something important, about something real?” – Ray Bradbury

 

5. “We cannot tell the precise moment when friendship is formed. As in filling a vessel drop by drop, there is at last a drop which makes it run over; so in a series of kindnesses there is at last one which makes the heart run over.” – Ray Bradbury

 

6. “Self-consciousness is the enemy of all creativity.” – Ray Bradbury

 

7. “Life is not the mountain tops, it’s the walking in between.” – Ben Rector

 

8. “I have been bent and broken, but – I hope – into a better shape.” – Emily Dickinson

 

9. “That it will never come again is what makes life so sweet.” – Emily Dickinson

 

10. “You will learn a lot about yourself if you stretch in the direction of goodness, of bigness, of kindness, of forgiveness, of emotional bravery. Be a warrior for love.” – Cheryl Strayed

 

11. “You don’t have a right to the cards you believe you should have been dealt. You have an obligation to play the hell out of the ones you’re holding.” – Cheryl Strayed

 

12. “Be messy and complicated and afraid and show up anyway.” – Glennon Doyle

 

13. “People who need help sometimes look a lot like people who don’t need help.” – Glennon Doyle

 

14. “Just do the next right thing one thing at a time. That’ll take you all the way home.” – Glennon Doyle

 

I hope some of these quotes hit home for you and inspired you to start keeping an eye out for your own favorites that show up in your life. Writing this list of quotes already made me feel much more relaxed and optimistic, so turning to words when you feel out of sorts can sometimes be the best thing to do.

These are the books/albums I found some of these quotes in: