Driving to school with my windows down and a cassette in the player has to be one of my favorite feelings, with the wind roaring through the only window that actually rolls down in my VW Beetle that’s older than I am. To pull up to a stop sign and turn it down because I want to be respectful to the music other people are playing, but also because I’m curious as to what they’re listening to as well. This was my experience every weekday of my senior year of high school. To school and back with my friend Emma, compiling playlists and Shazam-ing at intersections (when I was stopped of course).
The exchanging of new songs and playlists is something that has always improved my relationships. Whether it’s asking what someone is listening to in their headphones, or hearing something out loud and inquiring, I’ve always found it fascinating how art can bring us together. Even when people don’t have the same taste in music, sharing allows people to branch out and see if there’s something there that they enjoy as well. Even if people are very adamant about not enjoying that genre of music, there’s always that one song that can help sway them, and the conversations about why they don’t like that type of music are very interesting.
I recently met someone who was very interested in music. They were always listening to it, could name songs within the first seconds and could tell you every song by their favorite artists. This fascinated me because music has always felt like it’s played in the background of my life but I didn’t hear it like they did. The passion that they spoke with about the lyrics of the song that was playing genuinely made me so interested in a song I never would have listened to twice. The more I talked to them, the more I found myself enjoying and analyzing the music that was playing. Sure, I had always loved listening to music. But now I’m listening to different genres, different artists from different eras and having so much fun with it.
I believe that meeting new people will always strengthen the fabric of our lives in the long run. People, like songs, come in and out of our lives, but the things we learn from both stick with us. I’ve learned that it doesn’t even have to be deep either. Meeting someone at a party and smiling when you see each other improves my day significantly. And when it is deep, when you meet people that challenge your worldview, or your taste in music, you come out of it with a deeper understanding of yourself and the people around you.