SOUNDTRACK OF MY LIFE!!! :-)

Lynyrd Skynyrd, “Sweet Home Alabama”: Whenever I think of my childhood, I my mind wanders back to my Kindergarten through 2nd grade years in good ol’ ‘Bama. It really was “home sweet home” to me. Folks were always nice there; everyone was friendly and polite. The skies really were so blue, all the time. It was pretty much warm all year round. One winter night, I remember sitting in the van with my family, minus my mom who was in the mall speed shopping for something or another. I was trying to convince my dad that I had NOT made up this song that I thought was called “My Old Friend,” but I hadn’t heard it in a long time, and trying to sing it and make him recognize it. I don’t think it worked. “Here let’s see if maybe it’s on the radio.” The speakers in the car crackled as dad flipped through the stations; I knew it wouldn’t be on there. One of my sisters suddenly shouted, “Look!” to distract us from our search. Dad and I looked and gasped in surprise. It was a miracle! It couldn’t be! …It was snowing. As my sisters and I gazed, mesmerized, at the falling flakes, my mom came running quickly through the parking lot, hurrying to make it into the warmth of the van. She opened the door, rosy-cheeked and out of breath, the smile on her face mirroring the ones on ours. It snowed roughly 1 millimeter that night. Naturally, school was cancelled the next day on account of the hazardous weather conditions. Well, the hallways of Robinson Springs School were outdoors. This is how it was in the “Southland,” where it was “yes ma’am, no ma’am, yes sir, no sir” or else you got a whoopin’. Many of my friends and golden childhood memories were created down there, and I’d never trade those days for nothin’, no sir. ;)

Carrie Underwood, “Jesus, Take the Wheel”: I love this song and feel like it really speaks to my life because of its double meaning. For anyone who has not been in a car accident, they have no idea how terrifying it is. I was in my first car wreck when I was really young, probably five to six years old. I was sitting in the passenger seat of the car, with my mom driving. For my height, I should not have been out of a some kind of child’s car seat yet, but children under 12 are not suppose to ride up front anyway, and for good reason. The crash came suddenly. One minute we were driving along, fine as can be, the next, I was thrown forward. The airbag that was meant to hit an adult in the chest hit me square in the face. The force of the blow hurt, and the powder stung my eyes. I was crying pretty hard. My mom was unharmed, but the older woman driving the other car was hurt pretty badly. We got out of the car, and a cop informed my mom that she had run a red light. My mom was horrified; she had no idea. I remember throwing up in the back of the cop’s car where I was sitting and recuperating. When I finally went back to my kindergarten class with scraps and cuts on my face, my teacher asked if I was comfortable with explaining to everyone what had happened. I said I was. I stood there, in front of the class with my mom to explain why I had been missing. Very seriously and solemnly, I told my classmates that I had been in a car crash. Every little eye and mouth in the room grew big with sympathy and every little head nodded with understanding. For all my solemnity back then, I didn’t realize how serious it had been. I could have easily been blinded or died. In this beautiful song by Carrie Underwood, it takes something as scary as a nearly deadly car crash to make the woman throw up her hands and let God take control. Nearly as long ago as that car accident, I became a Christian, and since then I’ve had some “car crashes” in my life. Sometimes that’s what it takes to remind me that I can’t always do it on my own. If I give the wheel to Jesus, I am putting my life into much more capable hands then my own, ones that will drive me down the right road and will never let me crash. That is something that I’m still learning to do as my life goes on. I can’t imagine getting threw the tough times without my faith. I strongly believe that God had a hand to play in that crash so long ago when I was young; He protected me. I know I’m here for a reason. And I know that sometimes things are out of my hands, and I just need to sit in the passenger seat. I don’t mind; I’m a lousy driver anyway. :-)

Vitamin C, “Friends Forever”: Friends Forever really captures the bittersweet flavor of life. It’s not just a song about graduation. It is a song about how life moves and changes and won’t stop for anything. It’s a song about saying goodbye. It’s a song about letting go, and it’s a song about holding on. Moving sucks. The first time that I had to move (and was old enough to be aware of moving) was when I had to leave Alabama to come to Nebraska. I was in second grade and heart-broken. Everything I knew was in Alabama, and I didn’t want to leave. My second grade teacher, Mrs. Davis, was a slightly plump, African-American woman with a heart of gold. My last day of school, she dedicated entirely to saying goodbye to me. We watched “Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Day” in place of science and in honor of the day. Everyone in the class created good-bye letters and cards for me instead of writing class. But the thing that most stands out in my memory was, when I came back into the classroom after delivering a note to the office for Mrs. Davis. She had gotten all of my classmates to stand in a group together while I was gone. And when I opened the door, they all burst into rhyme, reciting from our class’s favorite book, “I’ll love you forever, I’ll like you for always. As long as I’m living, my friend you’ll be.” It was a great happy day in my little life, but at the end of it, my parents picked me up and I looked at RSS for the last time, never to see it or its inhabitants again. Change is hard. I had to go through a similar ordeal when I moved from Elkhorn to Valley in sixth grade and then again when I moved back to Elkhorn in seventh grade. All through high school I had to learn to say goodbye to friends who were older than me, as they graduated. Each year it got harder, until finally, it was my turn. But like the song says, those times and those places never really die. Even Alabama lives in my memories. And although most of my “friends” back then probably don’t remember me, and I know I don’t remember all of them, there are some who will “still be friends forever,” even if our paths never cross again.

Faith Hill, “Wild One”: Ah, the teenage years! J It seems that every child gets along perfectly with their parents until their 13th birthday. And then, once they turn 20, everything is cool again. That’s how it was with me. When I became a teenager, all the way through my senior year in high school, I had so many fights with my mom that I can’t even count them. I never did drugs or alcohol, and I never did really naughty things with boys, but I was still a “wild one” in my mother’s eyes. I think these are the years when you stop taking every word out of your parents’ mouths as the law of the world, and you start questioning things for yourself. “Because I said so” is not a good enough reason anymore. You begin to think and reason. My response to above reason was always, “But WHY?” I began to voice my own, still developing opinion when the wiser course that wouldn’t lead to grounding would’ve been to keep my mouth shut, but I just couldn’t. I had to be heard, even if it got my nowhere. My dad would sometimes take my side or at least understand me, which is why I love the line in the song about her dad (I was always daddy’s little girl), but “the battle lines were clearly drawn” with my mom. I was never so destructive as the young girl in the video. I did beat a pillow quite a few times, but no feathers came flying out, and I never would have destroyed the sanctuary of my room. I started listening to rap, which Satan actually prefers even to rock and roll. My parents didn’t want me dating anyone until I was sixteen; this became I problem when I got a boyfriend at the age of fourteen. I also loved escaping to the roof. I was a “wild one, running free!”

Usher and Alicia Keys, “My Boo”: Just the same old boring brick building that I went into everyday when I was in elementary school; when I was in 8th grade, I came back on a Wednesday night, entering through the back door closest to the gym. I didn’t want to go to AWANA (a church youth group). I hadn’t liked it much last year. What would make this year any different? But it was my final year to be in it, so why not give it a shot? He wasn’t supposed to be there. Only a year older than me, a freshman in high school, he should have been up at the actual church, helping much younger kids. That’s why we say it was fate; for some reason I went when I really didn’t want to, and for some reason he was put where he wasn’t supposed to be. For a while, Josh was just the really cute, older guy that checked off our bible verses for us, and that my friend, Sarah, and I could only dream about dating. Then on my birthday he wrote me a very corny piece of poetry. It definitely wasn’t Senghor, but I thought it was amazing. Then, being the dork I was, the following week, when I handed him my notebook, instead of reciting the verse, I recited his poem in its entirety, from memory. And something about that blew him away. Long story short, we started dating. We went through many rough spots, but both of us knew that this person was different somehow, was worth anything and everything. And we were right; we dated for over four years. Josh was my high school sweetheart, but he was and is so much more than that. We grew up together; we changed each other forever and for good. We aren’t together anymore, and that has been one of the hardest things in my life. But had I known back then how it all would go, I would do it all over, exactly the same. “There’s always that one person that will always have your heart.” They say that you never truly get over your first love, and I believe that’s true. You move on, yes, but there’s always some little part of you that will always be in love with that person, because true love doesn’t die. And it’s not really sad; it’s wonderful. I couldn’t ask for a better friend then the one I have in him now, and I know he’ll always be there for me, as I will for him, because we’ve shared something timeless and true.

Bosson, “One in a Million”: Friday night lights, probably the brightest ever, glaring down like search lights from an army of helicopters, the chill of the autumn night, hundreds of people in the stands watching as I stand, front and center, on the 50 yard line, smiling up to the press box, alone. The glitter on my face and costume dances wildly in the light and my hands tightly grip my flag, pointed down at an angle to the ground. The drum majors blow their whistles to call for a halt… and it is silent. Nothing beats this moment. The music begins, and so do I, spinning my flag around my body, as the rest of the Color Guard line marches in my direction, flags held still. Then there’s a huge crescendo and the music takes off as 11 flags joined mine, tossed into the sky together with a great ‘whoosh!’ Although this was slightly nerve-racking at first, I felt like “one in a million,” and by the night of my last performance, I did not have a single twinge of fear in my body. I surged with confidence and excitement. Being guard captain, and having the opportunity to perform and to do what I love was a “once in a lifetime” experience that I will never forget.

Julie Zenatti et Patrick Fiori, “La Belle et La Bête”: « Il était une fois, » une fille qui a découvert qu’elle adorait tellement les langues, mais surtout le français. Elle est tombée amoureuse de cette langue. D’apprendre une langue étrangère a changé ma vie. Je suis étudiante pendante quartes années au lycée, et maintenant, c’est ma spécialité à l’université. J’ai un vrai talent en ce qui concerne les langues, et je voudrais utiliser ce talent pour mon travail futur, ma joie, et peut-être pour changer un peu le monde, pour mieux. J’ai choisi cette chanson parce qu’il est de Disney, et j’adore Disney. Je l’adorais quand j’étais petite et maintenant je l’adore encore. Je suis une enfant au cœur. Je croirais dans la magie pour toujours. Mais, aussi, La Belle et La Bête en particulier a de la signification. C’est le film que je voyais avec mon père quand j’étais une enfant. C’est vraiment une « conte de l’enfance » pour moi, même si les langues restaient une « conte de toujours » pour moi, dans ma vie.

*** “Once upon a time,” there was a girl who discovered that she so adored languages, but most of all, French. She fell in love with that language. Learning a foreign language has changed my life. I studied French for four years in high school, and now, it is my major in college. I have a real talent for languages, and I want to use that talent for my future job, happiness, and maybe even to change the world a little, for the better. I chose this song because it is Disney, and I love Disney. I’ve loved it since I was little, and I love it still. I’m a child at heart. I’ll believe in magic forever. But, also, Beauty and the Beast in particular has significance. It’s the movie that I watched with my dad when I was a child. It really is a “story of childhood” for me, just as languages will remain for me “a story of all time”, in my life.