Sometimes, music that you listened had an impact on you. I had been, too.

It was far back then when I was in secondary school. I broke my family’s printer and felt guilty and stress because of the guilt. Some thoughts like “what should I do?”, “what will my family do to me?”, or “will I be scolded?” occurred. Then, I listened carefully to “Menghapus Jejakmu” (literal translation: Erasing Your Trail) by Peterpan, one of the most popular bands in Indonesia back then. That song really relieves my stress and my guilt since the song chorus was like “you are not everything to me/ not created to halt my steps/ after everything has passed/ let rain erases your trail”

The next song that has impacted me was “Goyang Duyu” by Project Pop. It was a humorous song by a comedy group. Last time, I watched on TV about an investigation on a religion sect that has quite scary worships and practices, which shaken my faith, and because of that, I couldn’t sleep, scared, and felt sick on the next day. The next day, I felt really better after watching TV where they played that song with its music video which was really funny.

Fast forward to 2011, it was around the time where I started to listen to English songs and to like Coldplay a lot. I also joined the school programming club in which that time they are selecting the school representatives to the national science olympiad on the city level. I think I did really badly and after I finished, I went back and listened to “Fix You“, it was a really touching song as the starting of the lyrics is “When you try your best, but you don’t succeed”. Listening to this song, I felt more relieved and not that sad as “light will guide you home/ and ignite your bonds/ I will try to fix you”

Also in 2012, “Survival” by Muse is released (for London 2012 and also their 6th album, The 2nd Law) and I usually listened to this song before competitions or exams as the song meaning not to give up, to fight hard, to reveal all your strengths, and to win whatever lies ahead.

Some songs reminded me about my family.

“Pachelbel – Canon in D” (especially piano-only version) reminded me of my brother. So during my brother’s high school time, he practiced playing piano on this one song only, and he practiced every morning in very fast tempo before he went to school, while I was just half-awake (since that time my school starts in the afternoon). Sometimes I missed this, especially after his graduation from high school.

“Chopin – Nocturne Op. 9 No. 2” reminded me of my sister, who studied and played piano. Sometimes I was really annoyed by her practicing piano since it was really loud and during that time, I can’t do anything: too noisy for studying nor sleeping. Sometimes, the song was also not that nice for me. But gradually, the song that she played is getting longer and longer and nicer and nicer. This piece was one of them.

Those are some songs that had some impact on me. Most of them relieves me from stress and makes me calm while some others reminded me of home. Sometimes, I wished to go back in time where my family was complete and where life was much simpler back then. But what’s left behind is just memories and they shall not halt life to go forward.