Okay let’s face the facts: I can’t be the only one who finds their comfort food in the form of music and movies. I also don’t believe that I’m the only girl who’s rewatched her favorite shows a bajillion times and still laughs like it’s the first. My grandma always makes a comment when she sees that I’m reading my favorite books for the 30th time: “You and Ken, (my grandpa) are the only two people I know who can reread books,” she says with an adorable laughter in her tone. What can I say GMA, I’m the perfect product of my Pisces/Cancer signs, a lovable (yet somewhat concerning) hopeless romantic.
I joke that I fall in love 6 times a day when in fact it’s probably more like 60. My heart explodes at every dog I see on the street, the spiders I try to rescue in my bedroom, the cup of coffee Libby makes me when I visit her at work, Ginny’s sweet smile, Sarah’s contagious laughter, and the friendly stranger that held the door open for me yesterday. I’ve read that Pisces just love love and they find it in the smallest of places. It definitely makes me (as cheesy as this sounds) appreciate the smaller things in life and be more appreciative of everyday acts of kindness.
And yet, my greatest love of all time is music. I’m sure if you’ve read some of my previous articles, you’re thinking, “Yeah, Cec we know you love a good love song, ya da ya da.” But it’s true! Concerts and live music are two of the things that make me feel the happiest. I love that moment when the artist first gets on stage and the fans who’ve been standing for over an hour stop their conversations and burst into excited cheers. That’s true love right there. And when they start singing along to a song that is not yet released like it’s been out for years, the look on the artist’s face is priceless. There are some artists that I personally have seen more than once simply because I love the way their music makes me feel.
Over the summer, I saw John Mayer live for the third time. That track record is one of the reasons I was inspired to write this kind of article. I always go back to the moment when he started playing the intro to Beyonce’s “XO,” the purple lights, the harmonica’s echo, and the simple strum of his acoustic guitar fanning over the crowd. There’s something so beautiful when one artist pays tribute to another by performing their song, and John managed to make it all his own, filling the room with a folky warmth that connected each and every person. I search for that kind of feeling every time I go to see live music and it’s always there.
I also love books, but as sad as it is, I was never the most avid reader growing up. It was easier for me to fall for a song than it was for a book. That changed after I read some that have changed my life forever. Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief, I remember the day I started it, on the couch of my family’s second home in Spring Green, Wisconsin. It was not only the first book that I finished in a single day, but it was the first book that made me cry. Whenever I feel “stuck” and need inspiration, I read Isabel Allende’s House of Spirits. My mom gave me her old copy of this book when I was fifteen and leaving for Europe for the summer. When I read it, I remember being in the backyard of my uncle’s house in the Czech Republic, the feeling of the sun, the smell of the air and the feeling of being in a completely new place. I often find myself craving that feeling, and so I take the book off the shelf, and read it again.
As I’ve grown older, the romantic in me finds love everywhere: In the first sip of coffee in the morning, the spontaneity of going to a last-minute concert with my best friend, the music that plays on a quiet drive home on a Saturday night, and the idea that I get to come home to my best friends every night. I’ve been told that being so emotional and so open about my feelings towards things makes me “weird” or “weak,” but I think it makes me, if anything, a better human. I guess when I really think about how many books are on my reading list and how much music there is to discover, my habits can seem kind of silly. But what can I say? I know the things that make me happy and I surround myself with people who make me feel loved. My heart is full all the time, and I love it.