NSYNC

My sister has a very keen sense of smell. That's her sense. When good food, or bad food for that matter, is placed in front of her, the first thing she does is smell it. She trusts her sense of smell to determine all kinds of things, and certain smells jog certain memories.

My sense is sound. Even though I swear that I'm deaf sometimes, nothing brings back memories like certain sounds, whether they be music or buses. Buses make me think of Brazil, music makes me think of the time in my life when I first heard that particular song.

Over Thanksgiving I was driving around Edmond in my old car, the beloved Tercel, listening to my old radio station and I felt like I was in high school again. I heard "Pretty Fly for a White Guy" and almost cried. How 8th grade is that? And sometimes I'll hear "What Would You Do?" by CityHigh, and it makes me think of the best summer of my life: summer between sophomore and junior year. NSYNC's "I Want You Back" reminds me of the summer just before I began the 8th grade, when my family moved to Edmond and I found out what boy bands were. That same summer includes the song "Crush" by Jennifer Paige. Freshman year of high school holds "Bye Bye Bye," for NSYNC's second appearance on my list, and "Hey Ya" will forever remind me of freshman year at ACU in Gardner dorm, where Molly and I would listen to that song every single morning as we got ready for class.

There are certain songs that remind me of certain people in certain places. That "I keep on falling in and out of love with you" song by Alicia Keyes makes me think of a happy little relationship I had in high school, both of us sitting in my car (yay Tercel!) outside of his work. "Breath In" by Frou Frou was the soundtrack to driving around Abilene with Mike sophomore year to find grub costumes. Anything by Jump Little Children or Phoenix makes me think of Mike, to whom I can attribute about 90% of my musical taste. And then there was that time freshman year when a bunch of us drove out to the Anson Lights and Frankie J's "Suga Suga" was playing...that song's for Alex. :)

Whatever your sense is, I hope that it brings back memories as vivid as mine. One of my favorite feelings in the whole world is for a song to come on that holds such significant memories and to be so overcome with joy that you actually feel it. I think I'll go listen to a little NSYNC now...