From the dark end of the street to the bright side of the road

I wish, oddly, that I was more of a music dork, enough of one to organize my iTunes music into very specific playlists and categories. Here's what goes on my recently created "grad school mix," the songs that got me through my first year out of college:

"Fix You," Coldplay
Sample lyric: "Lights will guide you home/And ignite your bones/And I will try to fix you"
I bought this album just after I moved into the house on Dudley Street, before Carrie even got there. It reminds me of walking in Medford and driving through the rotary on Route 60 in Arlington.

"Leaving New York," REM
Sample lyric:: "Leaving New York, never easy/I saw the light fading out"
Leaving New York for grad school was harder than leaving New York for college. I downloaded this song late one Friday evening during the summer and listened to it on the porch after a phone call from my New York best friends made me sad.

"Switch," Will Smith
Sample lyric: "Vibe to vibe a second/It's a club, girl, why you arrive nekkid?"
Because during the summer of 2005, this song was played so often on the radio (and my commute to work was about two hours total, so that's a whole lot of Mix 98.5 and Lander in the Morning with his Nutcrackers) that Carrie and I had a "Switch tally" on our whiteboard.

"Crystal," Fleetwood Mac
Sample lyric: "I turned around and the water was closing all around like a glove/Like the love that had finally, finally found me/Then I knew/In the crystalline knowledge of you"
Hopelessly lost in Somerville on my way to a Tufts mixer/Hurricane Katrina fundraiser, I hear this song, and when I e-mail WBOS with extremely sketchy details, they get back to me and identify it! Hence why I love BOS so much to this day.

"No Surrender," Bruce Springsteen
Sample lyric: "We made a promise we swore we'd always remember/No retreat, baby, no surrender"
After the BAA Half-Marathon in October, I was pumped. And nobody in rock 'n roll does "pumped" better than The Boss.

"God Says Nothing Back," the Wallflowers
Sample lyric: "I'm calling out to the deep ends of my bones/Time says nothing back but I told you so"
I listened to this a lot when I had the flu over Thanksgiving. And when I say "a lot," I mean "constantly, while coughing pitifully and feeling sorry for myself."

"Everybody Knows This is Nowhere," Dar Williams
Sample lyric: "Everybody seems to wonder what it's like down here/I gotta get away from this day-to-day running around/Everybody knows this is nowhere"
Another pity party favorite, despite the upbeat tone of the song. Ironic! (Or, just a really big bummer? Let Alanis Morrissette be the judge.)

"This Year's Love," David Gray
Sample lyric: "So who's to worry if our hearts get torn/When that hurt gets thrown/Don't you know this life goes on"
After my car was broken into, I had to walk back and forth from my apartment to campus at the tail end of the wintertime, and this CD was the length of my walk.

"Black Horse and the Cherry Tree," KT Tunstall
Sample lyric: "My heart knows me better than I know myself/So I'm gonna let it do all the talking/Woohoo!"
See above re: walking and CDs. Except I also heard this song all over the radio and it Kicked. Ass.

"Over My Head (Cable Car)," The Fray
Sample lyric: "I never knew/I never knew that everything was falling through"
Could I drive more than two miles in the spring of 2006 without hearing this song on the radio? Um, no. No, I could not.

"I Run For Life," Melissa Etheridge
Sample lyric: "I run for hope/I run to feel/I run for the truth, for all that is real/I run for your mother, your sister, your wife/I run for you and me, my friend/I run for life"
Melissa Etheridge wrote this song to benefit the fight against breast cancer. My Lucky Stars, the band that played at the Avon Walk, played it and it really touched me.

"Boston," Augustana
Sample lyric: "I think I'll go to Boston/I think I'll start a new life"
In this song I am driving on Route 38 between my job in Winchester and my class in Medford...and even though this is the cheesiest, sappiest piano ballad ever, I'm smiling because there's a shout-out to Boston!

"You've Got the Love (Remix)," The Source featuring Candi Station
Sample lyric: "Sometimes I feel like saying, 'Lord, I just don't care'/But you've got the love I need to see me through"
I spent my very first hours in Medford putting together a DVD rack while watching Sex and the City. I spent my very last hours in Medford listening to this song -- which plays during the last scene in the Sex and the City series finale -- on repeat.