Project 3: The Soundtrack of My Life

Randy Newman: "You've Got a Friend in Me":It might have been a toy that brought us together that summer. It’s a friendship that’s lasted for over fifteen years. All though we hardly see each other, the early memories from childhood will never fade. It’s funny how a toy like Woody or a Barbie doll can bring two people together, but it’s how I met my childhood best friend. She lived four houses away, and I can’t even count how many times I would sprint across the street to go see her.

It’s funny to think that a Barbie could draw two people together. We spent years playing with Barbies, fixing their hair and making them look pretty. We would have real tea parties with real food and drink. We would sit with our Barbies at a small bright orange Fisher-Price picnic table she had in her basement. We would talk for hours like we were grown-ups at a real tea party.

After the excitement of Barbies faded, and now that we are in college, I still consider her a best friend. We don’t talk as much as we used to, but there will always be a special bond that we share. Barbies and bikes are what drew us together; and now we are drawn together by more grown-up things. I feel lucky that the few times a year when we get together to catch up on new experiences and spend hours laughing about the old ones, it seems like no time has past at all.  I know she knows that she’ll always have “a friend in me.”


Rocco Deluca: "Colorful": Colorful is a way to describe every little thing that makes you the person that you are. “You’re the most colorful thing that I’ve seen”: a lyric from the song Colorful by Rocco Deluca, is a way that I describe myself. Colorful is not another way to describe myself as crazy or unique, but being colorful is a way of life. Being colorful is sharing your talents and gifts with the world. Being colorful means you have the ability to make someone smile even if it's not your day. “Live like your last day, drink like it’s water there’s no tomorrow” describes how I live my life. I try to enjoy every moment and share with others my colorful view of life.

I would consider my whole life up until this point as colorful. My life is like the box of Crayola crayons that I used to own. There were sixty-four crayons in the box and I remember the waxy texture each crayon had every time I took it out of the box. I remembered how excited I would feel each time that I would pull a new un-used crayon out of the box. I can vividly remember the distinct smell of a box of crayons. I used those crayons until they were no longer usable. I would spend countless hours coloring pictures that I would ask my mom to hang on the refrigerator. I've never really considered myself creative, but with my box of crayons my creativity was endless. As a child it was just a box a crayons, but now I see that box of crayons as my life. Those sixty-four crayons that were originally in the box represent all of my past experiences. Every new experience that I have had is a color that is added to my box. I believe that a box of crayons can never just have sixty-four colors; there is too much to experience in life.


Mariah Carey: "All I want for Christmas": I love asking my parents about Christmas’ past. This year, my mom wrote me a letter telling me all of the things that she remembers most about our family Christmas’. I’m so glad that my mom wrote down some of our old memories because I was so young that I hardly remember anything from my early years. In the music video there are kids sledding, playing in the snow, and visiting Santa. I remember that I was the typical child who was afraid of sitting on Santa’s lap until I found out that he was the one who brought our toys. After my sister revealed that Santa no longer existed, I was content with receiving more gifts instead of a stocking stuffed with silly toys. Like the girl in the music video, I would dance around the Christmas tree waiting for my turn to open presents. One memory my mom has is that she remembers seeing the delight in my face when I discovered my first bicycle hidden in the kitchen on Christmas morning. I remember that my sister and I would always sleep in the same room the night before Christmas and wake up early the next day to see what presents we would receive. On Christmas days when there was snow, I remember spending hours outside with my sister playing in the snow until our cheeks were rosy red. We would go inside and our mom would fix her famous hot chocolate and make us cinnamon rolls.

As I have grown up, each Christmas has been a little different. When I was younger I would expect presents to be waiting under the tree and a stocking filled with toys. Now that I am older, “All I want for Christmas” is to relax and spend a day with the family. Fewer family members are able to make it to a big family dinner and my older sister is now married and has her own family; so new traditions are emerging for our family. Although each Christmas is different, and new traditions are starting to emerge, it is fun to remember the past traditions and someday share those with my own family. This Christmas we will miss the grandparents who are no longer with us, but now we have Nora, the newest addition to our family, to help us celebrate and create new traditions. “I won’t ask for much this Christmas, I won’t even wish for snow; All I want for Christmas” this year is a day full of love and laughter with the people who I treasure most.


Angels and Airwaves: "True Love": This song by Angels and Airwaves, and this music video, help me remember one particular summer when I was eight. When I was little, we used to take family trips every year. It was that one time of year that we could get away just the four of us. We took trips to St. Louis, Colorado to go skiing, the Grand Canyon, numerous camping trips, California, Lake Tahoe, and many other magnificent places. The most magnificent trip that I can remember was our trip to London, England. I was eight years old and for an eight year old to fly half way across the world is a huge deal! I hardly remember vivid details from my other trips, but I can clearly remember what it was like to stand in front of Buckingham Palace. The changing of the guards at the palace stole my attention only for a moment from the vastness of the palace. I remember Piccadilly Circus exactly as how it is shown in the movie. All of the vibrant colors on the advertising screens and the large crowds of people at Piccadilly Circus remind me of Times Square in New York City. I remember seeing the glow of the London Bridge and the brilliance of Big Ben standing next to the water from the top of a red double-decker bus. One of my favorite parts of London was seeing the Tower of London and the Crown of Jewels and imagining what it would have been like to be a English princess back in the day. My trip to England that summer is one I will never forget. I cannot wait to go back their someday and relive all of the sights and sounds that London has to offer.


Yann Tiersen"Comptine d'Un Autre Ete: L` apres Midi":As a child my way to escape from the busy world was through a piano. It was an old, red wood piano that sat in our dining room. On this piano I would play for hours, escaping into another world. I loved the way my short, little fingers would glide across the white and black keys.

I started playing at age five and I didn’t stop for ten years. I would play what I was told to play, as well as make up a few songs of my own. My teachers over the years always told me I played too fast, but I’d never listen. I would go on playing as fast as I wanted. I made each song that I played my own. I enjoyed playing music like in this music video. I would play songs by Beethoven and Bach because they were so peaceful and soothing for the soul. My mom and grandma would sit on the couch, close their eyes and listen to me play for hours on end.

As the years went on, the music just started to flow out of my fingers. After so many years, I would just learn to play. I learned to play by ear, and not by sight-reading the music. Learning to play songs and memorize them became so easy. It’s been years since I’ve played that old, red wood piano. Now it is out of tune, but each time I sit down, the music flows out of my fingers just as it did fourteen years ago.


Rob Thomas: "Little Wonders": This song, by Rob Thomas, is one of my favorite songs because it talks about how everything in life is a gift. I have discovered that there is a rainbow after every storm. The biggest storm of my life has been the death of my granpda. He died when I was fourteen. The hardest part about accepting his death was that I wouldn't be able to say goodbye. At the time, he lived over in England, and I wasn't able to fly over to England for the funeral. Our worries, disappointments and fears are like our “raindrops” of life. Some days may seem like the rain never ends, but every experience in life is a little wonder. Friends are like umbrellas; they are there to “help our troubles fall behind us” and protect us from the storms of life. Although many “raindrops” fall in our lifetime, it is important to keep a light heart through it all. Five years later, I am now at peace with his death, and I know that he is in a better place. I believe that each of us has a conscious decision to decide whether or not bad things will steal our joy. Keeping a sense of humor about smaller mishaps will make heavier loads easier to carry.

Life is a little wonder. We don’t know how much time we will have here on earth, but we need to treasure “these small hours” as if each moment were our last. “The twists and turns of fate” that life throws at us are a blessing in disguise. Fate leads us to unexpected places, but you must learn to have faith that you are in the exact place that you are meant to be.


Bebo Norman: "Walk Down This Mountain": I “walk down [the] mountain of life with my heart held high because I have been blessed with wonderful family and friends who have been there to support me. The mountain of life is like a person’s spiritual life. This song means a lot to me because when I heard it for the first time I discovered the mountain that life brings to us is a challenge we must overcome. I went to Chicago with a group of from my school for a service trip. This service trip was an empowering experience where I realized that extreme poverty and homelessness affect all types of people. Looking poverty in the eye is an experience I will never forget. Hearing the stories firsthand from a man who slept in a box the night before was what began my journey up the mountain. There are ups and downs, there are steep points on that mountain that you must walk and there are places to rest when we get tired. It was something I struggled with a lot, why are some people poor, and why do others like me have everything? To answer this question I relied heavily on my faith to help me climb the mountain. Having faith is the greatest feeling in the world. Faith takes your doubts by the hand and makes you into a stronger person. Having a firm faith gives you the courage to stand up for what you believe in. I believe that my faith shows me that there is a higher being who watches over me each day and all that I do. I believe that if we offer all of our hardships, we “will taste the meaning of life.” The true meaning of life is that you know that you were put on this earth to make it a better place. I was put on this earth to help make a difference in the lives of those people that I met in Chicago that spring. I am sad that I had to drive 800 miles to Chicago to realize that I could make a difference. I now have a strong desire to make the world a better place. I believe every positive thing that we do, even if it goes unnoticed today, will come back to bless us in the future.


Israel Kamakawiwo Ole: "Somewhere Over the Rainbow": I feel that for the first time in my life I have reached the top of the rainbow. Not one day has passed that I haven’t been given encouragement to follow the “the dreams that you dreamed of [because] dreams really do come true.” Somewhere over that rainbow in the distance, you’ll find that all your wildest dreams come true. After most rainstorms, I look out into the distance and see a rainbow. As I stand in awe, captivated by the beauty of the rainbow I feel so lucky that I am able to enjoy this beautiful moment. As I stand there in awe, I am absorbed into the first color of the rainbow, red. The color red is all of the positive aspects of my life. Every experience I’ve had in life is a powerful experience that I have learned from. Red is my color of power. The next color, orange, is the color of my emotions. Knowing how to find joy in the little things in life is the only way that you can enjoy the larger things that will bring you joy later. Orange is the frustration and excitement that I have had during my first semester here at Nebraska Wesleyan. As I move into yellow, I clear my mind of all the distractions that life brings. At times I’ve gotten so busy with golf practice, friends, and homework that I’ve forget why I’m really here at NWU. I am here to discover who am I and who I want to become. As I feel myself move into the green, I feel free. I am recalling how much I have changed I have encountered during my first semester of college. I have made a beautiful transition and I’m now a more independent person. As I drift to the blue stripe in the rainbow, feelings of love and kindness surround me. Blue is the color of friendship. I have met so many great people here, including my sorority sisters. I know these people will be a huge part of the rest of my life. Purple is about finding your moment of truth. I believe that if I put my whole heart and soul into something, I can achieve anything. If I put my heart and soul into everything, I will eventually discover where I am meant to be. Violet is the last color of the rainbow. It is the color of energy because you can look back at the other colors and realize how much you have accomplished and grown as a person. I am proud of my hard work this semester and I am thankful for the opportunity to grow as an individual here at Nebraska Weselyan.