In one of the summer days of 2017, it had been a long day at school. I probably had a serious fight with my best friend, embarrassed myself by shouting out a wrong answer confidently, and my crush had been actively ignoring me the whole day. I would return home and try to take a nap, but couldn’t fall asleep because my mind would keep going back those situations.
So instead, I would boil myself a cup of coffee, lay down on the couch, and turn on some music. The song playing would mostly be Jason Mraz’s “I’m yours”— and it would go, “Open up your mind and see like me, open up your plans and, damn, you’re free, look into your heart and you’ll find love, love, love, love.” For a while, all my regular teenage issues would be blurred out. Life felt more bearable within minutes as I would feel the presence of an energy that would simply listen and comprehend my emotions with no judgments involved.
Even now after four years have passed by, whenever I listen to the aforementioned song, my anxieties and discomforts manage to elude for a little while and I feel validated during my lowest of times. Sometimes I think about how silly my problems were back then, how I didn’t have to deal with current academic pressure and how unbothered I was by different social issues and people’s misconducts, thereby allowing me to acknowledge how much I have evolved as a person, mostly for the good. Nostalgia creeps in silently as I reminisce about the beautiful memories of the past whilst acknowledging the truth of today. Music makes me feel okay to miss certain people and still feel content in their absence. Through music, I can effortlessly escape reality when reality gets jarring and overwhelmingly difficult to process.
I remember during my medical entrance preparation days, I was hooked to the song, “Aaj mei upar, aasman neechey“, as it made me experience the achievement that mattered the most to me at that time. This would further motivate me to study for longer hours. I can’t seem to recall those countless songs that have made me feel more wholesome and less lonely, and the ones that have made me want to pursue the lover I haven’t even met yet (courtesy- Taylor Swift). From uplifting my confidence with little bits of Queen and Ariana Grande to making my emotions feel validated with those amazingly written sad songs at times when negative experiences have weighed me down; music has been my guardian angel for countless situations for as long as I can remember.
As you can see, music has allowed me to experience a wide range of emotions— from hope, to triumph, to melancholy, to wistfulness. In a world that is mostly self-serving, covetous, and materialistic, I find myself surrounded by inexplicably beautiful intangibles when I’m with the healing presence of any good music.
So take this from a Melophile: When in doubt, take a few deep breaths, don’t feel shy to get all cozy inside your comfort zone, play anything familiar from your playlist, then let the music do its magic.
