Here's one example I came up with of a "mixed tape of a life" (not necessarily my particular life, but could be...dun dun dun) - the song list, if you will:
You made it out of high school alive! You had highs and you had lows. You made friends, you lost friends. You thought you knew it all, you've discovered you still have so much to learn. You are beginning to grow into your own person. You're moving on to the real life now!
You meet someone new! He's amazing in every sense of the word. Everything else in your life takes a back seat to the time you will spend with him. You envelope each other. It's just you and him... He is the axis to your world.
Things have changed. He isn't the 'be all and end all' anymore. You've discovered he has faults and so do you. Maybe you don't meld together like you thought you did. You are both young. You both make mistakes. He's strayed from the relationship. He's found another girl who makes him smile like you used to.
But you're not innocent yourself. You've made him feel guilty for stepping out of the relationship when you yourself have found someone who makes you feel beautiful and sexy again and wants you as bad as you want him. He does and says all the right things, your boyfriend can't measure up.
You talk it out, you both realize you aren't meant for each other. You are both full of mixed emotions: Love, lust, comfort, familiarity, hurt, anger, resentment. You fall prey to what most couples do at the end of the relationship. You have one final hurrah.
He misses you. He misses what he had. It's easier to ask for you back than to venture out into the unknown alone. You just wish he'd go away. It's just easier that way.
Your single again, rid of the headaches and heartaches. You want to take back the life you once had. You want to surround yourself with your friends, have fun and live life. Tie up those laces and leave your worries on the dance floor.
You're finally ready to meet the right person and start the next step of your life. The planets must be aligning for you because you've met someone who just clicks with you. Someone that doesn't make it hard. Someone who just gets you - Everything about you, good and bad. Someone who is teaching you to be a better person.
You decide to make it official, dedicate yourselves to each other through sickness and in health, until your dying days. You vow to stick with each other. You complete each other. He waits for you at the end of the aisle to take your hand because he already has your heart.
It's your first dance as husband and wife. Being in each other's arms just feels right. Everything else falls away, it's just the two of you, taking on the world together. You've begun this journey in each other's embrace and you hope to end the journey in the same stance.
The Luckiest - Ben Folds
Your life takes the expected route and the two of you are lucky enough to join forces and create another human being to walk this earth. You nurtured her, you sheltered her, you loved her with every fibre of your being. You put little arms and legs on your heart and you released it to run free. You became a mother and you no longer could remember what your life was like before that day.
You raise your kids and it gives you an entirely new perspective on everything you put your own parents through and what your parents sacrificed to make your life better. You have a whole new appreciation for your own parents. And you hope someday your kids will be able to say that you were a good mother with complete conviction.
You've watched your husband grow old beside you, and now he's taken ill. You're the one he turns to for comfort. You're the one who still makes him smile through his pain. You are running out of time. You need to tell him what he means to you, how he's affected your life.
The Story - Brandi Carlile
He slips away from you. You feel so hollow. He completed you and now a piece of you is gone. You hold on to your memories and the love you shared, but it's difficult to pick yourself up and carry on. He was your world, your everything. You have to say good-bye.
He only comes to you now in your dreams. You dream about how things used to be. You dream about the day you will reunite. You hold on to the hope that there is more to this union than just our physical beings. You want so badly to believe he's out there, surrounding you with his presence. He tries his best to let you know he's here.
It's your time to move on now. To say your final good-byes. It's okay though, your kids are grown with their own families and you have got someone on the other side waiting to greet you, to show you around. You won't be alone. You'll stand watch over your family. You can go with the peace of mind that you lived a good life. You did it your way.
My Way - Frank Sinatra
So there's my blog version of a mixed tape to symbolize a life lived. Obviously there are so many additional circumstances in one's life where there could be an appropriate song playing in the background. This is just one quick version. It's fun to make mixed tapes. You can have them represent one specific time like the tape Barb made for me, it can just represent you and all your favourite songs, or a period of time. Making one can be cathartic and sharing them is a silent way of sharing yourself.
I've always maintained that we have soundtracks of our lives. Kind of like in the movies where at pivotal moments in life there is a song to accompany it. We've just stopped hearing the music, but it's there lingering in the background...similar to how we've tuned out our own heartbeats. What would your mixed tape be like? What songs would you choose to represent you?
lol. love that you have an actual tape but don't know how you're going to play it. Like having an old record but no player...
ReplyDeleteI have a shelf stereo if you will, but it's been packed for so long under my stairs, I'm not sure I'll be able to dig it out! :)
DeleteWhat a great idea, Missy. My friends and I used to do that all that time. Way back when we actually USED cassette tapes and that was cool to do it. Now we have "playlists" which actually just sorta lose the cool factor there.
ReplyDeleteFunny that you should bring this up because my daughter and I have been really into Pandora recently and she said that none of her friends knew who Scissors Sisters or Mika was. It got me thinking that perhaps this generation has been robbed of this "Top 40" mentality since they all listen to their own vibes on apps like Pandora, Spotify or iTunes. I had no idea when she said that if those two bands are even popular! I know that I like them and she likes them, but in the end - who really cares as long as they are making music we love! I say this somewhat facetiously because I think that letting a radio station determine what is hot is not that great, but what it DOES take away is the ability of kids to have a small enough set of tunes to actually be able to relate to each other's tastes. Certainly an interesting discussion!
Wow, so very true. Didn't really look at it that way, but you're right it does kind of screw up that common interest. Or I suppose it could go the opposite way and your friends can introduce you to more stuff that isn't played on mainstream media. Perhaps Indy music is going to explode with downloads and word of mouth play.
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