Tuesday, March 22, 2016

Show and Tell Tuesday: Mixtape

Today I decided to join up with Andrea from Momfessionals for show and tell Tuesday, where I was prompted to provide the soundtrack to my life.  This task seemed really exciting at first, but then I realized that it would actually be very hard.  Music has always played an important role in my life, so how could I possibly narrow down my choices.

Growing up, my mom was always singing.  Most of the time, they were nonsense songs that she learned from who knows where, because no one else seems to have ever heard them.  However, there is a song that will always make me think of my mom.


This song will always make me want to smile and get up and dance.  Thinking back to when I use to actually make mixed tapes or more so CDs, this song made it onto every single one.

Not wanting to leave my dad out, I have to add an artist.


No matter how many times I may visit Cheeseburger in Paradise or Margaritaville as an adult, hearing anything from Jimmy Buffett will always take me back to summers on our boat as a kid.  It doesn't matter what song it is, I can probably still sing every word and I have my dad to thank for this. 

I'm not sure I can pinpoint just one song that could sum up my childhood Christmases, but....


This album!  This album plus a few other select songs describe our Christmas celebrations.  I know, my family is crazy.  For several years while growing up, my family decided that instead of buying gifts for everyone, we should present anything to the family as a whole.  This included many skits, poems, and dances many of which came from this album.


Songs that take me back to grade school include:


I know you're thinking, "How old are you?" but again, music was always dominant in my life.  This song makes me think of my brother, because we sang it together for a talent show, complete with costumes and wigs.  As weird as that sounds, it was a huge hit, and kind of became a thing in our group of friends so we reenacted this performance many times.  I think the last time we sang this was while in high school.  It might just be time to bring this song back again. Karaoke anyone?


I know, another old song, but in all seriousness this song was there for my family when we really needed it.  After the unfortunate death of my 13 year old cousin, this song became an anthem for my family.  We sang this song everywhere, school talent shows, dance recitals, and nursing homes.

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Let's just be honest, any song by spice girls will take me back to singing at the top of my lungs into a hairbrush while jumping around many of my friend's bedrooms.



Moving on to middle school:


This song is the first to come to mind, because it was selected as our 8th grade song.  


Middle school is when I was introduced to Christian music, and more importantly dc Talk.  I loved this album and the song "What if I stumble" carried me into those scary halls of high school.

We've made it to high school:

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I've seemed to have switched to albums, instead of songs.  Again, it's this entire album.  Every song here holds memories, because I loved this album.


This album will forever remind me of my very first car, my Pontiac Grand Prix, where I totally rocked out to this album on cassette.  I know I was cool, singing at the top of my lungs with the windows rolled down, playing my cassette.  I guess I am older than I realize!


This time, it actually is the song and not the album.  I danced to this song with some amazing friends my junior year of high school.  I'm not sure if it was just that it was a more popular song than what we might usually dance to or what, but this dance stuck with us.  Even at my wedding, seven years later, my friends joined me on the dance floor and we repeated this dance to the best of our abilities.  So, maybe this song would be more accurately placed in the next category.

College and life thereafter:


Yes, I know this is a movie, but there is a song from this soundtrack that I didn't even remember the artist without looking it up so I figured this picture was a better option.  "It Feels Like Home" by Chantal Kreviazuk.  I loved this song in the movie, but in College it gained an important role in my mix tape as this song was a part of my sorority recruitment skit.  There were of course many songs in our skit that make me change the words when I now here them, but this song sums up all my time as a collegiate Zeta Tau Alpha.


Although this song came into my life after college, it was sung at the funeral of a college friend that died way too early.  Therefore, any time I hear this song, I break down in tears and reminisce about my college years spent in the Sigma Alpha Epsilon house.


This was our first dance at our wedding, so of course it needed to be included.  Although this reminds me of our wedding, we had actually already danced to it a year or two earlier as part of the teacher's dance in the recital of the dance studio that I worked at all through college. 

The last five years seem to be tough to come up with any songs, and maybe that's because not enough time has passed, I don't know.  I love going to concerts and maybe in a few years, I would answer with something from Kenny Chesney or Clayton Anderson since we've seen them multiple times lately, but in general I feel like I don't listen to music as much right now in my life.  

It also seems weird to me that this list doesn't include any musicals since I'm pretty sure I could come up with a soundtrack of my life using only soundtracks.  Hmm....maybe another post for another day?  
Anyway, I'll leave you with one last song that is a classic for me.


This song has become a bit of a motto for me lately.  And how can you possibly go wrong with a Disney classic that can always take you to the happiest place on Earth.

So that's my mixed tape.  I can't wait to read what everyone else has included on their tape.

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