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Life to Music

What's the Soundtrack
Of Your Journey?

By Mark Stackpole

? My Junior Prom theme song, thank you very much. Ah, I love the '80s indeed.)

While trips down Memory Lane can be powerful (let's not even get into the breakup songs), I have found that I now imagine different music playing in my head during moments in my real life. Not memories so much as that personal soundtrack I alluded to earlier – if my life was a movie, what song would be playing during the most pivotal scenes?

Sometimes, it is the tough-guy posturing of rap, though it's not very convincing coming from a 34-year-old white guy. But for a second, I can feel that energy surging through me, and it feels good. Other times, a Top-40 tune puts a little spring in my step and makes me feel like everything is going to be OK. Occasionally, when I'm feeling low, I will even wallow in some country-western sadness.

My soundtrack is pretty eclectic, but so is life, and since I am the only customer, I do not have to worry about making sure that every song is a hit. (When I enter a classroom full of new students, I imagine "Darth Vader's Theme" playing as I swing open the door and stride into the lecture hall. Dum-dum-dum-DUM-de-DUM-DUM-de-DUM. Just the right song to give me the confidence I don't always feel.)

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