My music comes with me

It's funny. My life here is so unusual. It's so distinctly peaceful, it's incredibly rewarding, it's basically without real problems. I have grown accustomed to adorable children throwing their arms around me every morning, I'm used to seeing the mountains as I walk the unpaved dirt path to school, I expect to feel the warm breeze outside every morning, and I'm used to speaking Spanish to pretty much everyone except my fellow teachers. I often forget how unusual my life and experiences are. Many people never have the opportunity to experience anything like this.

And as the time passes, I realize that I must be changing, too. Things that might not have been normal for me a year ago are commonplace now. My mom noted over Christmas that I seemed more confident, my brother commented that I'm "calmer." haha. These subtle changes are not remotely noticeable to me, but I recognize that these experiences I'm having must have some sort of effect on me.

Today, I was jogging after school, and a very familiar song came onto my iPod shuffle. The summer I interned at CNN, I woke up early every morning to run, and I started all of my workouts with this particular song. While it played today, I could not help but remember the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial and the Reflecting Pool, which I looped around during my runs. They are such a far cry from the mountains that punctuate my reality now. I love that my music can come with me and remain constant. Every song holds memories and emotions, but I listen to many of them now cognitively. I remember the emotions without necessarily feeling them, I relive memories without feeling nostalgia. It kind of makes me feel old. It definitely makes me feel like I'm growing.

Almost a year ago, I left for Europe with my best friend. We toured around Spain and Italy and spent an infamous weekend in Morocco. We celebrated Carnival in Sitges, ate pesto in Rome, bartered with some salesmen in Tangier and went to a bullfight in Madrid. I laugh now, thinking about how much we freaked out about a cockroach that made its way into our kitchen... if only I had known the size of the bugs I'd be facing a few months later! Those experiences don't feel like they could possibly have started a year ago. I listened to a lot of music as we traveled through Europe and spent weeks lounging on the Mediterranean beaches. I know that the songs I associate with that trip will always hold very specific memories of the places, people, and emotions that I felt while I listened to them.

I have no idea where I'll be in a year from now, and that's kind of scary. But it's really nice to know that no matter what, my music will come with me.