On Repeat

People have different ways of focusing while they write or work. Stephen King, for instance, can’t listen to music while he writes, but he blasts it while editing. A friend of mine turns on the noise canceling feature on their headphones and writes in complete silence. A strange subsection of the population likes listening to coffee shop chatter like it’s white noise. I don’t understand that, but I support whatever auditory input helps you get creative.

I’m a music person. Always have been. When I think back on earlier periods of my life, I always associate them with what I was listening to at the time. When I studied abroad in Germany in 2013, I had Simon and Garfunkel’s “Hazy Shade of Winter” on repeat. (Appropriate, since I arrived in January to one of the longest winters they’d had in decades). I still have my wedding playlist saved on Spotify; I have fond memories of my sister and her service dog dancing to Queen’s “Don’t Stop Me Now” that day.

At the moment, I’m in the middle of summer dissertation writing. Partly as a time capsule, and partly because I like recommending music, I thought I’d share a few of my favorite songs at this stage of life.