My All-Time Bonaventure Playlist

Music has the ability to take you back to a specific moment in your life. It can transport you and unlock memories that you forgot you had. While I enjoy music and crafting my playlists, I’m not someone to overanalyze every lyric or even understand the deeper meanings of songs. I usually get my song analyses from TikTok.  

That being said, there are always those songs that were your anthem for a short period of time. Those songs that just take you back. For me, there are songs that are just “Bonaventure.” I could never listen to them and NOT think of Bonaventure or a specific moment in time at Bonaventure. So, as I wind down my time here, here is my All-Time Bonaventure Playlist:  

1.) “Cheerleader” by OMI 

This one is very random, and my friends are probably confused as to why this is the first song on my list. This song came out while my oldest sister Katie was at Bonaventure. One of my earliest Bonaventure memories is “partying” at Katie’s house at 10 years old during her graduation weekend. I remember this song playing and watching her and all of her Doll House roommates dancing around their living room and thinking that I wanted to be like them when I grew up. This song will never not take me back to that moment when I decided I wanted to be a Bonnie. 

2.) “Photo ID” by Remi Wolf and Dominic Fike 

This song was played at every freshman year pregame on second Rob.  

3.) “All Too Well (10 Minute Version) (Taylor’s Version) (From the Vault)” by Taylor Swift 

My freshman year roommate Julia and I stayed up until midnight to listen to this when it was first released. The entire “Red (Taylor’s Version)” album will always take me back to second Rob. 

4.) “It’s Called: Freefall” by Rainbow Kitten Surprise 

I don’t know why I remember Aidan telling me that he liked this song in his freshman year dorm room, but now it’s all I associate with it. 

5.) “Picture to Burn” by Taylor Swift 

This was a staple on our sophomore year playlist.  

6.) “I Will Survive” by Gloria Gaynor 

This became my SONG for a bit sophomore year. I still know every word and have a visceral reaction when I hear it. 

7.) “Love Me” by Lil Wayne, Drake, and Future 

Our sophomore year kickball team name was “All My Pitches Love Me,” so naturally, this was our spring weekend anthem.  

8.) “I Miss You” by blink-182 

My friend group’s song. Will never hear it and not think of them singing it in Doyle.  

9.) “The Color Violet” by Tory Lanez, “Valerie” and “Tears Dry on Their Own” by Amy Winehouse, and “He Could Be The One” by Hannah Montana 

These songs all take me back to my study abroad experience, whether we played them at the pre-game or sang them at karaoke at O’Neills. 

10.) “Shake That” by Eminem and Nate Dogg 

A song that I know for no other reason than the fact that my roommate Cassy loves it and WILL shake that when it comes on. 

11.) “Miss Movin’ On” by Fifth Harmony 

When I lived with Carter, he loved to sing this song in the shower. Now I can’t hear it without thinking of one of the most fun periods of my life, which was living with Carter Black. 

12.) “1989 (Taylor’s Version)” by Taylor Swift 

This entire album reminds me of the listening party held at Burton on the Thursday of Halloweekend. The songs were freakishly accurate for the way I was feeling at the time, and I cannot listen to them without thinking of fall 2023 me.  

13.) “Hey Baby (Uhh, ahh)” by Anton and DJ Otzi 

Does this song even exist outside of the Burton? 

14.) “Iris” by the Goo Goo Dolls 

This song will always signal to me that the night is wrapping up. My body knows when I hear this that I should prepare for the final song of the night. 

Which leads me to, of course, the ultimate St. Bonaventure University song: 

15.) “Piano Man” by Billy Joel 

I used to think that my sisters were joking when they said they couldn’t listen to this post-grad without crying. And now, I fear that I understand their sentiments too well. Besides “Piano Man” being, of course, the last song played every night at the Burton, its lyrics are also very Bonaventure coded. The regulars at a bar, the bartender that you know, the place you go to forget about life for a while. “Piano Man” is a symbol of Bonaventure itself, and I don’t know if I will ever stop tearing up when I hear it after graduation.  

There are definitely some songs that I’m missing in here (that I’m sure my friends will tell me), but these are most of the songs that will always take me back home, to St. Bonaventure. Thank you, Bonaventure playlist, for unlocking some of my most cherished memories. 

• college
• music
• nostalgia