Those We Love
09.15.25
Howdy everyone!
Happy September! The air is starting to crisp, the leaves are starting to fall, the pumpkins have infiltrated all of the treats, and the season is starting to be spooky! Sorry for the late post, I just got back home after traveling to Massachusetts for a concert, visiting Providence, Rhode Island, and stopping to explore Salem, MA, to get the Halloween vibes. Anyways, here we are on September 15, and I am happy you are here. Let’s chit-chat!
Like I stated above, I just came back to Maine after being gone for 3 days in Massachusetts/Rhode Island. I was in Massachusetts for a Falling in Reverse concert, and let me tell you. It was a trip. Very, very fun, but very, very different from any other concert I have been to. It was wild. For those who are not aware, Falling in Reverse is a rock/metal band that I have loved for almost 10 years. The experience of seeing them in concert was everything I had ever hoped for. It was loud, it was crazy, it was so fun. The chaos that was the concert is an experience that will live in my brain for years to come.
However, this post is not about the experience of seeing FiR in concert, but it does connect to it. As I stand in the havoc that ensues whenever one is surrounded by rock/metal fans while Ronnie Radke is singing “I’m Not a Vampire”, I take a second to look around and take in my surroundings. There is a line that is in this specific song that says “Daddy should have never raised me on Black Sabbath”, and as he sings this line, I am struck with the thought that my music taste can be attributed to my upbringing, specifically to my dad. Although Falling in Reverse was never in my dad’s rotating music, Metallica was, Linkin Park, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, etc. and then to go even further with this thought, if not for my dad letting me listen to this music, playing the game of covering the radio screen and making me guess who sings the song and the name of it, I don’t know if I would ever have discovered my own favorite bands and develop an attachment to this style of music. As I pondered this thought with the crowd roaring and screaming along, I had this notion. We are a collage of everyone we have ever loved.
This is what I want to discuss today: every experience we have, the things we love, the things we laugh to ourselves about- these are all things that we have linked to a moment with another person. I have a specific memory of lying on the living room floor with my brothers, with the Bluetooth speaker connected to my dad’s phone, and a wide variety of music playing late into the night while my brothers, mom, and I are trying to guess who the artist is and the song name. Now, anytime I hear certain songs, I am transported to that moment of lying in the dark, trying to fight sleep, just to hear one more song, to try to guess one more time, to hang on to that moment of being with my family and hearing my dad laugh whenever one of us would throw out a random guess that was so wrong it was funny.
The smell of baking bread reminds me of my grandmother and her teaching me how to bake bread from scratch while I watch her carefully knead dough and try to recreate the same actions. The smell of motor oil takes me back to my grandfather's shop and watching him tinker with anything and everything while my brothers, cousin, and I more than likely just got in his way. Any butterfly pendant reminds me of my aunt and the gold butterfly necklace she always wore, and I am taken to a time of all of my family hanging out at my grandparents' house, talking about all of the happenings in the town. The color pink reminds me of my mom. A lot of things remind me of my mom. I could go on and on, but the message is that, although we grow up, and we move away and we may not be able to see our loved ones every day, we carry them with us. In everything we do. The things we have come to love, although they are uniquely ours, can be linked back to someone who introduced them to us. Dive bars remind me of a specific friend of mine, Taylor Swift reminds me of another one, and rotisserie chicken reminds me of another one. These moments are linked to those we love or were in our life at one point. I truly think this is a beautiful way of looking at our world. We are all connected to one another, and the experiences you share with someone else may not mean much to you, but we truly have no idea the impact we leave.
This thought of leaving an impact on someone is something I think more of us should be aware of. We have no idea the memories that we leave on each other. Especially in this day and age, it seems that we are all in such a hurry to get to where we think we need to be that we forget where we are and who helped us get there. There are so many moments that we are reminded of someone, something, an experience, a fleeting speck of time, that helped shape us into who we are today, without us even realizing. And we are also in others' memories. I think we should all try to remember this and try to make good memories for those around us. It takes the same amount of time to be kind as it takes to be hateful. We are loved and we love. We create these moments with each other, and we go into the world and continue collecting these people we care about and keep creating memories until all we have left are these reminders. Let us be more aware of the impact we have on each other and realize that we are surrounded by people who are also a collection of everyone they have ever loved. Everyone has a story to tell, everyone is a collage of moments that shaped them into who they are, and let us be honored that we may also be able to be a part of this mosaic.
I am grateful for everyone in my life who has shaped me, influenced me, pushed me, and loved me. I carry you all with me. I remember the moments of laughter, of tears, of excitement, of love. And I am honored to be able to have you with me. I am reminded of all of you every day. Let us go out and become a loved memory for someone else. And Daddyo, thank you for sharing your love of music with me. I wouldn’t be able to love it as much as I do without thinking of you.
Thank you for being here, for sharing these moments with me. I hope to see you out there.
Nat:)