In a world full of constant movement, one of the few constants in my life has been my love for music and its ability to transport me back to both good and difficult times. To me, certain albums don’t just play songs; they take me back to a person, a place and a version of myself. These flashbacks are bittersweet, reminding me to appreciate the moments and places I can never relive. Three albums, in particular, serve as time capsules, each defining a different stage of my physical and emotional growth.
This playlist starts in the winter of 2024-25, my senior year of high school, when I lived in Stuttgart, Germany. It was my first winter abroad, filled with icy mornings, struggling to leave my warm bed, zipping up my white puffer jacket on my way out the door, texting my then-boyfriend throughout the day and forcing myself to go to the gym after school. By the time my dad picked me up, I would tiredly stare out the car window at the dark sky, the seat warmers turned up to the max. I would go home, do homework and end my night with a steamy shower, playing Body High by Lucki on my JBL speaker before returning to my warm bed to do it all over again the next day. Whenever a song from this album starts playing, it takes me back to those days. A time that seems worlds away was once my reality. When “Reflections” starts playing, I’m suddenly walking through dark European streets, chilled to the bone and holding on to my boyfriend’s arm for warmth. Dim city lights glow around me, and I feel right at home in a foreign country. Then “Told Me” starts playing, and I am sitting on a bench in my quiet neighborhood with my younger brother, talking about anything and everything. Other times, “Witchcraft” or “Slow Down” brings a sense of melancholy and emptiness as I remember stressing over college applications, barely functioning at school and navigating a breakup near the end of that season. I had to swallow those emotions while on a ski trip with my family. While these memories may sound lonely, what matters is that I remember them. That winter helped shape who I am today, from strengthening my relationship with my brother to navigating an unfamiliar place and experiencing both love and heartbreak. It’s all a part of me.
Then spring and summer came, and suddenly, it was warm. I was running long-distance track events every weekend and healing from a failed relationship by making new friends at school. Only a few months passed, but my life was completely different. I was no longer stressed about college because I was accepted into my dream school. My biggest worries were picking out a prom dress and preparing to graduate. Throughout the seven years I lived abroad, I usually visited my hometown of Sarasota, Florida for a month each summer. These trips allowed me to stay connected to my childhood and see family and friends who lived a continent away. The album that defined that blissful summer after senior year was Blush by Kevin Abstract. This energetic, colorful soundtrack remains one of my favorites today and never fails to transport me back to that transformative summer of sweltering Florida heat, driving lessons, theme park trips, afternoons on my grandpa’s boat and UF Preview. I had wild blonde hair and my freckles were coming out, as they always do when I leave the overcast European cities I called home. I felt a mix of excitement and uncertainty about the future. I remember practicing driving in my grandpa’s Jeep with the windows rolled down and “97 Jag” playing on the radio, the perfect soundtrack for a summer drive. As I did my makeup and got ready to hang out with my childhood friend, who I saw every year during these visits, I listened to the upbeat tracks “Maroon” and “Pop Out.” I often listened to “Bloom” while sitting in a rocking chair on my grandparents’ back patio, watching the sun set over the lake as the sky filled with oranges and purples. There are honestly no skips on this album. Although it is primarily energetic, it also contains calmer, more reflective songs like “Post Break Up Beauty” and “Abandon Me.” These tracks prompted me to reflect on the relationship I left behind earlier that year and the high school friendships that would fade once summer ended and everyone moved away for college. The album’s theme makes it the perfect soundtrack for the transition that comes after senior year. This period is both exciting and bittersweet, leaving one stage of youth behind and moving toward independence and maturity. Blush captures a journey of personal recentering and growth, with Kevin Abstract expressing these feelings through creative, aesthetically rich music.
This personal playlist ends with an album by my favorite artist: Essex Honey by Blood Orange. It will always remind me of fall 2025, after the bleak senior winter and colorful Florida summer, when I returned to Germany, dyed my hair back to its natural dark brown, worked my first job as a barista and completed my first semester of college online. Essex Honey is a tribute to the singer’s youth in Essex, England, exploring themes of time, home and loss. Themes that resonate deeply with me because of the constant changes that came with moving between countries . Those experiences taught me the importance of family unity and the pain of leaving friends behind every few years. Having lived in England for three years, I feel an even deeper connection to the album, as I can visualize the scenery described in “Countryside” and “The Train.” That September, I took a solo trip to Liverpool to visit my best friend from high school, one of the few long-term friendships that still remains. My friend attends university there, and returning to a familiar country with an old friend felt like a full circle moment. My life changed so much since I left, but my love for the country and my friend remained. I constantly listened to this album during my visit, feeling as though I were reliving a past life as I walked along narrow sidewalks in the chilly overcast fall air. With leaves scattered around me, high brown boots on my feet and a leather jacket on my back, I heard British accents everywhere.
I invite you to reflect on the albums that have shaped you. In a generation in which music is always one tap away, it has become a core part of our daily lives, with the power to connect people, resurface old memories and bring certain people back to mind. Maybe that is the real beauty of an album: it keeps a version of you safe, no matter how far you’ve moved on. A few months from now, I’ll be curious to see which album ends up defining this current chapter. Until then, I’m pressing play and living in the moment because someday I’ll want to go back.