Everyone has a soundtrack to their life; they have songs that attach themselves to moments and people without their choosing. They simply are there, and suddenly become the melody you carry with those memories. As my time on WASB comes to a close, I’ve found myself slowing down, pausing, and allowing myself to look back on my time. When I was planning this blog, I wanted to communicate how much my experience has meant to me, but I didn’t know how, yet I kept coming back to music. So that’s how I’ve chosen to tell this story, through the soundtrack to my WASB experience.
Blue Skies – Allman Brothers Band
After my second interview for WASB, I remember walking home with my roommate, and the now-standing president, Simon Brown, somewhat freaking out at the fact that we were now a part of something that would make an impact on campus. As we made our way back to the dorm room, neither of us could stop talking, or smiling for that matter. It was one of those moments in life where you just had to stop and eat a peach. I had Blue Skies by the Allman Brothers Band stuck in my head for some reason I couldn’t explain at the time, but as I look back on it fondly now, it makes perfect sense. The song is less about the weather and more of a feeling, like there is something coming up on the horizon, and good is going to come. That is exactly what that walk home was.
That’s How Strong My Love Is – Otis Redding
My first WASB retreat feels like something of a fever dream now. Being greeted with 65 fresh faces and trying to remember the names of people I had met for a brief moment four months before. It was scary and a daunting thing when I first walked into 650 N. Lake Street for the first time, being an official WASB. But somewhere in between the bus ride to camp and the early morning wakeups, something shifted. It wasn’t that I was just learning the names of the people around me; I was learning who they were as people. I was learning that this group is the kind of people who show up for you without being asked, who give tenfold what they take, and who can make you feel as if they’ve known you for years in a few short minutes. Though That’s How Strong My Love Is was written for a lover, it’s understood that there is something universal about the feeling of finding your people, and the quiet, yet overwhelming, certainty that you would do anything for them, and they would do the same for you.
Walk of Life – Dire Straits
There is something about the walk to the alumni building on a Wednesday night that never gets old. Often, the walk starts with Simon and me attempting to solve the problems of the world, and somewhere along the way, you run into another member, and if you’re lucky, another, and by the time you’ve reached the door of the alumni building, you’ve got a convoy headed in. All laughing about something that happened to someone or a silly story being told. Dire Straits wrote Walk of Life as a celebration of someone who found their thing and never let go of it. It's for the people who show up every time, with everything they have. That is what the walk to WASB meetings feels like to me. When I was a new member and still trying to figure out my place in the org, I walked in nervously. Now, as a team director, I walk in with a different feeling entirely. The feeling is something akin to joy, or maybe even pride. Not a pride that I find in myself, but in the room that I am about to walk into. All the familiar faces, warm hugs, and noise spilling through the door as it begins to open. Every time I make that walk to the alumni building, I am reminded that this is my thing, and I never want to let go of it.
How Lucky – John Prine
John Prine wrote How Lucky as a simple observation. To look around, look at what you have, and think about how you got so lucky to be there. I’ve thought about those sentiments a lot as my time in WASB draws closer to its end. For me, it’s not the big events or milestones that come to mind when I think of what this organization has meant to me. It’s the small moments in between. It’s the quiet seconds before a meeting closes when the room is full and buzzing. The walks across campus and lunches with people you didn’t know two years ago that I now can’t imagine my life without. It’s the brief pause to look around a room and realize that everyone chose to be there and chose to give a piece of themselves for the person next to them. I never understood how rare that was when I first joined as a freshman, but I understand it now. Lucky is an understatement, but it’s the closest word I can find for this organization and the people it’s given me.
Lastly, Alexa, play Landslide by Fleetwood Mac.