Elvis Presley, the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll, introduced me to the world of music. My mom and grandmother constantly played his classics in the car and I sang along like I was on the stage with the King himself. Now, I cruise around in my car with my stereo blasting to all types of music. This is my “happy place.” I find utter bliss in cruising around with my favorite song playing through my stereo system. Music has a far greater meaning to me personally. Songs are memories and have a way of relating to different, yet significant, times in my life.

In the 7th grade, I started reading the Twilight Saga by Stephanie Meyers. As I began reading the series, I listened to the same playlist, in the same order, over and over. I did this through all four of the books, because it brought me this strange familiarity with the books that eased my mind as I read. If I ever tune back into the playlist and find the songs I would listen to, it brings back a rush of memories from my middle school years and my favorite parts of the books that made me love reading.

My grandmother was in a small Christian band when she was my age, 17, and had a single record out. She has always loved singing and music in general. Every time I would spend the weekend with her, we would always have music blasting throughout the house and singing at the top of our lungs. It was something we loved to do and it gave us such wonderful memories to hold onto, all because of a few songs.

When my grandfather passed away on our family vacation, my little brother who was 2 at the time would always want to hear and sing Tim McGraw’s “When the Stars Go Blue,” and I still cannot listen to that song without thinking of the death of my grandfather. Every song I know relates back to a specific memory in my own life. The sound of the vocals, meaning behind the lyrics, and beats of the instruments connected me back to a season, a vacation, or even a tragic event in my life. The way it sounds to me takes me back to the time I initially listened to the song.

Music has such a huge impact on all of our lives. Personally, I cannot drive my car without the windows down and radio blasting. Although we listen to music in certain ways and listen to certain genres, in the end, music reenergizes our spirit.