Just like how the smell of freshly mowed grass takes me back to my days as a softball player, the sound of certain songs also bring up different memories.Today while I was studying in the living room, my roommate was playing music. One of the songs that came on her Pandora was "Fireflies" by Owl City. Suddenly, I was no longer on the couch reading about dialects; I was sitting at a pottery wheel making my very first mug. Now, this was way back in my junior year of high school when I took a pottery class. My teacher would play music while we attempted to mold shapeless mounds of clay into acceptable containers and struggled to keep the clay from flying off the wheel. I remember that that was the first time I had ever heard that song and it reminds me of how much fun that class was.
"Just the Way You Are" by Bruno Mars takes me back to sparkling and cascading silk and hot, sweaty bodies dancing around me. That was the theme song of one of the high school dances I went to. Whenever "If I Had You" by Adam Lambert comes on the radio, I'm taken back to a volleyball court. It was one of the songs on our warm up CD that helped get us pumped and ready for a game. The first time I heard "We Are Never Getting Back Together" by Taylor Swift, I was in the Creamery on Ninth in Provo with my first boyfriend. We broke up the next day. On a happier note, the first time I heard "Beat This Summer" by Brad Paisley, I was having all sorts of crazy adventures with my now fiancee.
Some songs, like "Fireflies," are more than just another song on the radio; they take me back to specific memories. Music takes me on a dance down memory lane.
