A soundtrack to live by

Whenever I hear Weezer’s blue album, I immediately think of High Point. I listened to that CD pretty much nonstop throughout the process of my family’s move there from Wilmington when I was in seventh grade and to this day, the opening guitars in “Say It Ain’t So” still make me think of an unfamiliar house and unpacked boxes stacked throughout my new bedroom.

I’ve always associated music with important times in my life. You may have heard people say that they can remember where they where and what they were doing when man landed on the moon or when Kennedy was shot. Well, I can remember exactly what music I was into at any given time and more than likely, hearing that song or band will conjure up all sorts of memories, for better or worse.

For instance, I can tell you that the first time I drove away from my house after getting my driver’s license, I put NOFX’s “Heavy Petting Zoo” in the CD player. I probably listened to Hopesfall’s “No Wings to Speak Of” four bazillion times during the summer of 2002. And I’m roughly 99% positive that I was jamming out to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” the day my little sister was born (Okay, so I don’t actually remember, but trust me: I loved me some “Thriller.”).

It hit me the other day that, as crazy as it seems, I’m graduating from college in a few short weeks and the thought occurred to me that there will probably be some band or song that will remind me of this point in my life. Green Day makes me think of middle school, Blink 182 makes me think of high school, but I have no clue what I’ll associate with college.

College has been kind of a blur, and it’s weird to think of how much I’ve changed in the past five years. Some would call it growing up, but I simply refer to it as adapting. Pretty soon, I’m going to have to adapt to a real job, a mortgage, marriage, maybe a few kids, and the list goes on. It’s a pretty funny to think that one day there will be a song that reminds me of the day I closed on my first house.

I really wish that somebody would come along and make a movie about me, just so I can see my life set to all this music. Michael J. Fox would be me, Marissa Miller would be my wife, and there would be tons of slow-motion, Rocky-esque montages of me training. But instead of Survivor, the soundtrack would be Beloved, and I would reach the top step at the Wilmington Court House during the breakdown in “Death to Traitors.” Seriously, it would be sick.