It's more than just music...

It's more than just music...

It's what the songs evoke. It's the emotions and the feelings. It's the memories. 

It's memories like the songs below...

This Vitamin C song was big in 2003, the year I graduated high school. I remember hearing it, and thinking how weird it was that I was about to graduate high school and how my world was about to change.

Or this song...

For whatever reason, Kelly Clarkson's Breakaway, makes me think of college. It was a fairly popular song my freshman year and came on the radio quite often. And now... Now this song brings back all sorts of memories of classes and friends and events on Montevallo's campus.

But that's not all...

Or what about this one...

Viva la Vida by Coldplay takes me back to July 29, 2009. I'd just said goodbye to my parents and brother and was walking toward security at the airport in Atlanta. I turned my iPod on shuffle, put my headphones in, and this song came on. 

And it was when I heard, "...like missionaries in a foreign field" that I felt it. I felt the immensity of what was happening. I was a missionary. I was leaving my family, my home country, my comfort zone, and was going to this foreign field that I knew basically nothing about. Why? ...because God called me there. 

And now... Every single time I hear that song I'm transported back to that airport, walking away from my family, with tears in my eyes, feeling such a wide range of emotions - sadness over leaving my loved ones and excitement over fulfilling the calling God had placed on my life.

And last, but definitely not least, there's this song...

This song makes me homesick for Africa. It's makes me think of Senegal, of my Senegalese neighbors, the guy I bought my fruit from each week, the lady who worked for me helping out at my house, the guards at DA who would tease me about my Wolof or offer me cups of attaya...

It makes me think of the friendships I made during my time in Dakar. I think of the meals shared, conversations held, game nights, movie nights, ball games, fun times...

It makes me think of the ever constant dull ache in my heart. ...an ache for the place that stole my heart 5 years ago. ...the place that became my second "home" on July 30, 2009 - the day I stepped off the plane there for the very first time. 

It makes me think of Dakar, Senegal, West Africa, a place that will always be a huge part of my life.