Published by Chioma Adiole · Personal reflection
Lately, I have been listening to old school music. I put on a song because I want something to listen to, and before long I am remembering people and places I had not thought about that day.
Some songs take me back to childhood, while others remind me of the years after that, when keeping in touch took a different kind of effort. I remember Yahoo Mail, Hotmail and chatting on Yahoo Messenger. Sometimes going online meant going to the cybercafé, and I did not use social media as much as I do now.
I enjoy those memories, but it is often the music that brings them up. I hear the start of a song I know and want to listen to the rest. I may not have heard the song in years, yet I am ready for the chorus.
The words we thought we knew
I am less sure about the verses. As a child, I sang whatever I thought I heard, with plenty of confidence. Listening now, I sometimes realise I had the words wrong.
“An old song can remind me of someone I did not know I was missing.”
Who would understand if you sent them that song?
Still, that does not spoil the enjoyment. If anything, it gives me another reason to laugh.
Someone who remembers it too
What I often want next is somebody to share it with, someone I can send the song to without first explaining why it matters. I want to ask, “Do you remember this one?” and hear their excitement too.
You can begin with a song and find yourself talking about school, an old friend or something that happened years ago. One person remembers a detail the other has forgotten. Then you discover that you have both been telling slightly different versions of the same story.
That can be a conversation of its own.
I also like finding out that someone knew the same music long before we met. We grew up in different places, but there is this song we both remember, and I want to know where they heard it and whether they loved it as much as I did.
It makes me think about all the ordinary things we do not know about the people in our lives. We know their jobs and what they have been busy with this week, yet we may never have asked what they listened to when they were younger.
And then somebody younger recognises the song from a recent video. You were getting ready to explain it, and they are already singing along. Now you want to hear the version they know.
Enjoying the memory
For me, listening to these songs has been a pleasure in itself. I do not need to learn something from every memory. Sometimes I just want to enjoy the music, laugh at my old lyrics and remember someone fondly.
If it makes me think of a friend, I can send the link. We may talk for a while. They may simply reply that they remember it too.
Which song would you send to someone today, knowing they would understand why?
I am not a certified coach or therapist. This journal is a space where I share my thoughts, experiences and observations, not personal advice or therapy.
