Nice to see you again. Follow me, @SydneyOwen. Thanks for being here!
Note: this is the first of the 28-day blogging challenge. Hats off to Scott for the great idea. All aboard. I anticipate the topics over the next 28 days will be vast, as I plan to write every day for the month of February. Helps that 28 is my favorite number, too. 
I could write all about what the challenge is but it’s pretty simple. I don’t care about the traffic or RSS readers, I just want to see if I can crank out a post every day. But if you want more deets, check out Scott’s blog on that link up there! On we go!
If there is one thing that I wish I woas more well-versed in, it would be music. I say this because recently, I’ve met a handful of people who have a crazy-intense passion for the stuff.
Now don’t get me wrong, I’m a sucker for a good tune. But there are friends of mine, like Derek and my sister, Whitney, who have this crazy connection to the stuff. Derek has written about his love affair with finding music a couple times and has even been so kind to share with me some amazing songs in the short time that we’ve known each other. My sister has played around with music and has always seemed to be on the cutting edge of what is cool. Or what will be cool.
I have my iPhone loaded with a handful of the music that lives on my computer, the stuff I listen to most frequently. I have my songs that I listen to when I’m in a certain mood, and have songs that bring me back to certain events in my life.
For example, when I hear “Love You Out Loud” by Rascal Flatts, I sing it with a skip in it because that’s how it played when I was a senior in high school and blasting it with my windows down. The disc was scratched and would say “how mu-mu-mu-much I was so deep in love”. I can see me zipping through the neighborhood to get past the traffic on Antioch Road after school.
Or when I hear anything by Paramore, I can feel salty Tampa air as I floor it to USF to get there on time for my 8:30 class. Our Lady Peace is awesome driving music, and when I find someone who knows their stuff beyond what’s on the radio, I get really, really excited.
My old workout mix screams 2007 when I was in the best shape I had been since I was rowing at KU. I can sing the songs in order without them playing and tell you exactly what part of my workout routine goes with each song. The “Mr. Brightside” remix was for the last four minutes of cardio because it was the fastest song I had on the mix and I always finished on a high pace.
I have my playlist for when I have tons on my to do list – music that keeps me on a good pace to get everything done that day. I have my go-to songs when I’m looking for something to bring me out of a funk and those that get played on repeat when I’m searching for the words to describe how I feel about someone new and exciting in my life.
I have a friend who is a DJ and his performance is unofficially evaluated on how many people are dancing. I have a fascination with DJ’s because they are responsible for the entire feel of a place. DJ’s that suck are a buzzkill when you’re out and trying to have an awesome time. DJs that are awesome make you forget about how much you’ve got going on outside of those four walls. I’m a huge fan of dancing it out (in private, because lord knows I can’t dance worth anything) when I’m stressed. A good DJ can make you dance out anything that may be stressing you out, and you don’t even think twice about it.
I guess I do have some semblance of a connection to music, but it seems very premature, and nowhere near as deep as the connections that my sister or people like Derek have to it.
How is it that music can shape our personalities and our moods? What kind of music (genre, specific artists, etc) do you associate yourself with? What are some songs that bring you back to specific moments in your life?