a reminder of how it was
I know I stopped posting a long time ago, but this is important.
But first, a small review: I did not get into Binghamton, my trip did not happen. But I retook the GREs and currently have applications out to Notre Dame, Tufts, Rochester, Syracuse and Albany. I want to get into Notre Dame and I will not find out until the end of next month.
And now, the important part:
I just found my old iPod from college. It was one of the original little clip-on shuffles. It looks like this:
It was only 1g of music, not even completely full. I plugged it into my computer and didn’t let the computer completely clear it. I opened it and paused for a moment. Something I don’t often think about is that this laptop that I’m using right now is not the computer I used while I was at Fredonia. While I have been able to save all of my information, the number of times I played a particular song was not saved.
It was always something I looked at with great interest. I could see the trends my listening was following by looking at this count. Existentialism on Prom Night by Straylight Run always had the most plays, with Set the Fire to the Third Bar by Snow Patrol came in a pretty distant second. I know why: Existentialism always help a special meaning to me from my freshman year of college and Set became an obsession for some reason my junior year.
Unfortunately, with the new computer, I don’t have record of this. I only have new counts, new obsessions recorded. The most played song on my iTunes right now is April and May by David Fridlund with 82. Existentialism only has 40. Set only has 19. I have lost that record of my favorite songs from that time in my life because I switched computers. I didn’t think it would make me as sad as I am now, but there it is. Who knew?
But this little ipod… there is still a record of plays on it. It’s like looking at a photograph or painting. It’s a small piece of my history on a piece of technology. I know this all sounds so post-modern, but I guess that’s just where I am now. I look through it and I see that Existentialism was played 121 times. Set has 107. Such Great Heights by The Postal Service has 101. I Will Follow You Into The Dark by Death Cab for Cutie has 90.
This is a look into who I was and what I loved. It was what I listened to walking between classes, working out in the gym, writing in the library… it was always with me. Music has been and always be essential to me and how I remember. It is a way to interact. I remember listening to Lux Aterna by the Kronos Quartet (21 plays) on repeat one night after a frustrating evening with my thesis. I remember blinding light on the snow as I walked across campus in time with the down beat in The District Sleeps Alone Tonight by The Postal Service (88 plays) which actually made me think of a different evening in Fredonia my freshman year that had me and three friends walking all over Fredonia proper. I remember bouncing my head along to Supermassive Black Hole by Muse (61 plays) and imagining the people around me dancing along. I remember finishing my thesis while listening to I Found A Reason by Cat Powers (65 plays) at 3am.
I don’t think I will erase this ipod. It would be like burning a journal. There is so much that I can remember from simple song counts on a four-year-old ipod.
