Paramore, Virginia, Running, IT Consulting

How music is a direct link to my past

“I’m not so naïve, My sorry eyes can see”

Back in 2015 when I graduated from college, my step dad helped move me down to a one bedroom apartment in Virginia (~$1550 a month, woo). I had an IT consulting job in one hand, a physics degree in the other, and little idea what the future held in store for me.

But I also had a few things to ground me. I moved a mix of my college junk, my old room’s furnishings, and some of my step grandma’s furniture into the apartment, so it was familiar yet foreign.

There’s some dinghy bachelor apartment lighting for you! July 2015

I was also, geographically speaking, within walking distance of the school I’d just graduated from (Georgetown). So I was in a new but very familiar place.

I had a bike sitting in the apartment, a desk full of gaming junk, and a job that would suck up all my future time, starting in a few weeks.

But the best piece of familiarity that I still cling to from that time is Paramore. I had listened to the band off-and-on but I became obsessed that year.

I have a music listening habit where I eschew playlists and only listen to “albums”, these magical things that use to come in sleeves that you had to either flip over or start over by moving a needle. If I only got partway…