I have heard some people say that the sense of smell is, of all our senses, most closely related to memory. I’ve heard that smells are often the most powerful way to bring us back to a childhood memory that we forgot we had. This might be true for others, but for me, it’s sounds, more than smells. Specifically songs.
I have a whole playlist of songs that each come attached with a specific memory. Listening to those songs and looking over my playlist is like looking at a map of parts of my life.
The song “Turning Over Tables” by the Brilliance was played a lot at the first summer camp I ever went to in high school. It makes me feel as if I was back in the chapel room, talking excitedly with friends and waiting for the next lecture to start. It still makes me feel happy and excited for the upcoming day.
The instrumental song “Believe” (by Fearless Motivation Instrumentals) plays out a whole movie in my head. Or rather, a trailer for a movie. It became the theme song for one of the novels I wrote when I was younger, and I imagined how an entire trailer would play out to this song, if the book were ever made into a movie.
“Take Heart” (Matthew West) and “From Six Feet Apart” (Wild Goose Chase) both are from the very first weeks of quarantine, two years ago. I was very sad and lonely, not seeing anyone and not knowing for how long that would last, but these songs made it not seem so lonely.
“Cause You Had A Bad Day” was one of the only songs that I actually liked when I worked at a grocery store. The playlist was very annoying and repetitive, and I hated most of the songs. But for some reason, I never minded this one, and it always cheered me up.
“Everything is Honey” from Winnie the Pooh was one of Ruby’s favorite songs. I nannied her and her sister last summer and grew to love them so much. This song will always make me feel as if I’m in the car with Ruby, going to pick up her sister from school.
“Emma is Lost” by Isobel Waller-Bridge reminds me of the time I house sat for a family in their very old and beautiful house. The floors creaked and it was spooky at night, but it was old and charming and beautiful, and surrounded by Jane Austenesque gardens.
Then there’s the song “American Pie” which I listened to while packing my suitcase at midnight, the night before I left for my three-month trip to Honduras. I was excited and anxious about different things, and this song was just the vibe to keep up the excitement and make the packing fun. Of course, I listened to it with headphones, because my little sister was asleep on her top bunk.
While in Honduras for three months, of course, there were lots of special songs. The girl I worked with a lot at the coffee shop, Neylin, loved the song “I Want To Break Free” even though she couldn’t understand what they were saying because she doesn’t speak English. “Fearless (Taylor’s Version)” was the song that Sammy and Josue played as we drove through town, windows down and music loud. Ariana and I would just shake our heads at the boys, hoping they didn’t crash us because they were dancing to the song. I heard “Libertad” (Nil Moliner) playing on the radio in my taxi as we drove downtown. My best friend and I discovered Landon Austin’s cover of “Umbrella” from Instagram, and we both loved it. We probably played it every single day. I had many late nights studying in el comedor, and the song “Falling Apart” (Michael Schulte) was one I had on repeat. It still makes me feel as if I’m in the large room, studying with my friends, drinking my fourth cup of drip coffee that night.
You can’t force these songs to go with a memory, not really. It just happens naturally and then one day, a month later, you hear the song and it brings back a really vivid memory. And I realize it has to go on my playlist. It’s almost a way of “counting my blessings” or remembering my ebenezers. I can always look back on my playlist and remember the good times, or else how certain songs helped me through the hard times.
