Songs that got me Through the Years

High School has undeniably been a really rough time for me, especially in the earlier years. From my own home life, to the pointless drama going on at school, to my grades dropping due to my low motivation. Of course now it’s better (ignoring my awful senioritis), and I’ve made really great connections with my peers and made incredible friends. However, my relationship with music has been something I’ve always kept really close to me and it’s never changed, if anything it became stronger as I depended on it more to get me through my lowest of lows in freshman and sophomore year. Now that I’m graduating, I wanted to take a look back and reminisce on the songs that got me through it all, from crying in my room about how bad I was doing in school to the times where I was laughing so hard I couldn’t breathe. 

Freshman Year

Ahh freshman year… You know, you would think that being at a new school would cause you to be the best student you could be as you felt like you had something to prove… well that definitely couldn’t be said about me. While I had made an amazing new group of friends, we were separated just as quickly as we came together due to quarantine and COVID-19. It was a pretty rough year… but I mean, hey, still got a 3 on my AP Human Geography exam. Here’s what got me through it this year:

What Was I Listening to this Summer?

Summer of 2020, the (what felt like) eternal summer. I was going outside and shopping around downtown a lot this summer. Due to this, I like to consider myself an OG BlackPearl fan and I am definitely one of those annoying “I liked it before it was popular” people about it. This summer was certainly a crazy summer, but these songs kept me grounded throughout the entire experience.

Sophomore Year

Whew boy this was a.. A YEAR.. to say the least. It got really good at the end because I started dating my now partner, but it was still a really rough year for me. A and B day schedule had my motivation down to basically zero, and my social anxiety got ten times worse with coming back from quarantine. And speaking of quarantine, I had been quarantined three times in the span of a month which also took a pretty big toll on my grades. I made it through though, and here’s the music that SEVERELY helped me get through it:

What Was I Listening to this Summer?

Summer of love, 2021! This is the summer where my partner and I hung out every day basically, and honestly that summer was probably half the reason why we got so close as a couple. We did everything together, including listening to music, so in a sense our music tastes merged into one and here is the result of that:

Junior Year

Out of the entire time of my schooling at MHS, this was honestly my easiest year. My grades were great, I had a great boyfriend, and I made a lot of new friends and got closer to ones I already had. This was in general just a pretty great year for me, and I don’t think I have anything to complain about here. Here’s the songs that accompanied me through my highest of highs:

What Was I Listening to this Summer?

This was honestly one of if not the craziest summer of my life so far. Many late nights out with friends and even dyeing my naturally dark hair bright blonde just for the heck of it. Probably gonna bring that back this upcoming summer, but that’s besides the point. With this crazy of a summer, it’s to be assumed that my music taste was a bit all over the place, which I find to be true.

Senior Year

My senior year has been.. Insane, to say the least. While I did decide on my new favorite music artist (Tv Girl) and new favorite band (Ghost), it’s safe to say that my lack of motivation hit me pretty hard again this year, especially now that I’m getting to the end of everything and I already have my college plan set in stone. But again, the music I listen to has helped me get through the last stretch and I can’t wait to see what the future holds for me (and my music taste).

Conclusion 

Overall, my time at MHS has been a very interesting roller-coaster ride of very high high points, where you’d feel like you were on top of the world, and very low drops that make your stomach drop with it as you start to blast down. My experience interacting with the teachers, staff, and my peers over these years have changed me as a person, and I believe as of right now, I’ve grown the most as a person through my time here. While I am more than happy to make my way out of the building that I would wake up far too early for after a night where I went to bed far too late, there is no denying that I am going to miss some parts of this. My art classes, being a part of the newspaper, seeing my underclassmen friends every day, seeing the friends that are moving away for college every day, and in general having the routine I’ve become so used to these past years. Well with that being said… time to take care of my senior obligations! I’m on my way to MCC with a major in Cybersecurity!

Listen to the story playlist here: "Songs that got me Through the Years"