My life on shuffle
By David Krueger
Sometimes my iPod just understands me.
At night when I can’t sleep, I tend to grab my music player and put it on shuffle. Now and then it plays a perfect playlist to put me right to sleep. Other nights it surprises (and startles) me by blasting some German techno that my friend put on my iPod and didn’t tell me about.
Tuesday night, was a beautiful, almost poetic blend.
The very first song featured Drake, a Canadian rapper who’s one of my favorite musical artists. I feel like I can relate to his songs, especially the following line, which I couldn’t rephrase any better if I tried:
“Homesick just when I thought I was sick of home.”
Now, I’m not really sick of home, but I was really excited for my trip. I wanted to get out and see the world, and leave my city behind for a few months. Saturday and Sunday were the first time I was really hit with homesickness, as I laid in bed and struggled to lift and drink a small bottle of water.
“Homesick” is an interesting phrase. I’d bet at least Le5,000 that it comes from somebody who was traveling abroad and wanted to go home because they got sick.
I imagine that while going on tours for months at a time, Drake occasionally gets sick. I bet it’s those times were he also gets a little homesick, even though he thought he was sick of home.
Next up on the playlist was a little rock n’ roll, with an alternative rock group called Forever the Sickest Kids. The song was perfect for two reasons.
First, the name of the song is “Keeps on Bringing Me Down,” and the chorus begins with: “why does the world as I know it, keep on bringing me down?”
This past weekend, and even up to today as I’m still not fully recovered, the world (or at least a bread and beans sandwich) definitely brought me down. It not only brought me down. It took me down, kept me down and beat me up while I was down.
Second, the very first line of the song made me smile when I heard it: “It’s a sunny day on the west coast.”
I know they’re talking about the west coast of the United States, probably California because the only other states on the west coast are Washington (where I’m from) and Oregon and trust me, there are very few sunny days in either of those states.
However, I’m currently on a west coast and on Tuesday morning/afternoon it was even sunny for about 30 minutes. Then the clouds came, along with torrential downpours, and the sun went away. But, at least for a little while, I too had a sunny day on the west coast.
Really silly things like this make me feel better. Which is why the next song assured the playlist was going to be a winner.
All of a sudden I heard one of my favorite songs by two of my favorite artists. Lil’ Wayne and the aforementioned Drake collaboration “Right Above It.”
This is why I’m sure my iPod loves me. I listen to this song a lot. Not only does it have a catchy hook and some very smart rhymes by the two hip hoppers, but it’s one of the best songs to listen to if a person ever just needs a pick-me-up or wants to feel a wave of confidence rush over them.
I needed both.
I lip-synched along with Drake and Weezy (as he’s known back home because of his unique voice) until I got to my favorite part of the song, which I sang so loud I wouldn’t be surprised if the people downstairs heard me.
Lying in bed, all tucked in for the night, bobbing my head up and down, and smiling uncontrollably I belted out: “Life is a beach, I’m just playing in the sand.”
It’s probably important to note that this was my favorite part of the song long before I got to Sierra Leone. But, now that I’m here (and have played in the sand several times) it’s definitely one of my go to songs while going to bed, getting ready in the morning or just sitting around my room writing in my journal.
To be incredibly honest, I wasn’t sure how the shuffle could get any better, but it did. Favorites like “Good Life” by OneRepublic and “No Hands” by Waka Flocka Flame helped ease me into a deep sleep. The former talking about how “this has gotta be the good life” which, for the most part, Salone has been. The latter is a good get-pumped song that reminds me of bars and clubs back home.
A few more songs played as my eyelids began to get heavier and heavier. Just when I thought it was about time to shut the iPod off, “Where We Gonna Go From Here” came on.
As the title suggests, the singer (one Mat Kearney) is unsure of where his life is going to go from the current point. If there’s any song I can relate to right now it’s this one. I don’t have any idea what’s going to happen tomorrow, let alone when I get back from Sierra Leone.
I don’t have a plan. I’m terrible at making them, and I feel like they rarely turn out how they’re supposed to. After I return to America as a college graduate I have to try to find a job. Somewhere. I could stay in Seattle, or end up somewhere across the country like New York or Miami. I really don’t know where I’m going to go from here. At all.
To call this song soft rock is an understatement. It’s so calm and soothing it could have single-handedly put me to sleep.
But it didn’t have to.
It had the help of the World’s Greatest IPod. I wonder what it’s got planned for me tonight.
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