A Song of Myself
Illustration by Sabrina Carrizo Sztainbok
Growing up, there are many things that can shape who you are as a person, from your friends and family to the things you learn in school or the shows you watch.
Recently, I’ve been thinking about music and why I like the certain music I do or how a certain song speaks to me. Music can speak to different people in different ways. What a song means to one person might not be what it means to another. Song lyrics can be open to interpretation and can even begin a personal exploration for an individual.
With this idea in my mind, I decided to compile a list, not of my favorite songs necessarily, but songs I’ve listened to throughout my twenty-one years of list that I feel best explain who I am as a person. The things I feel, I believe, I want, I desire, and I need. Each song, I like to think, makes up a different piece of my soul and my heart. Obviously, each person is too complex to be completely explained in just a few songs but this is just my jumping off point into something more. I encourage anyone to try this and just see what their list of songs say about them. You might end up learning something surprising about yourself that you didn’t expect. Wouldn’t It Be Nice – The Beach Boys You Are Always On My Mind – The Partridge Family Some Kind Of Wonderful – The Drifters / written by Carole King Drive – Alan Jackson My List – Toby Keith When We Were Young – Take That Oceans – Hill Song United My Eyes Adored You – Four Seasons Teen Dream – Shaun Cassidy Don’t You (Forget About Me) – Simple Minds I’ve Had The Time Of My Life – Billy Medley and Jennifer Warnes Once and For All – Cast of Newsies It’s Time – Imagine Dragons You’ve Gotta Die For Something Beautiful – Palaye Royale Good Good Father – Chris Tomlin