Monday, July 9, 2012

Tune-In Tuesday: The Teenage Years...featuring BOYS!

Tune in Tuesday is hosted by Ginger at GReads!
I've always loved this meme, but never participated before - I figured what better time to hop in than a retrospective to our teen years?! My teen years were spent in the early 2000s, which was a great time of pop music. And oh boy was I ever a part of that...but I'll save my favourites for the end of the month!

Today, let's chat boys. We all know boys and kissing and 'omg he smiled at me' is the apex of teenage years. We agonized over little glances for hours, analyzed with friends for days about the tone of his "hey what's up", and if he gave you a hug hello? It was over. That was love.

Like a lot of others, I quickly had certain songs that would become my theme or anthem with a boy. Some were my feelings towards him, others were memories created with the song playing...somehow, a boy always equaled a song in my head. Which is still true today, actually, but we're not going to talk about my current wonky love life.

Allow me to share 3 songs that held special boys in my life!

Usher - U Got It Bad
The first boy to ever break my heart.
Sophomore year. And at the time, it wasn't just broken; it was slaughtered, crumbled, absolutely crushed. I truly thought I would never get over him or what happened. In any case, during this whole 2-year crush/love for him, this song was the constant soundtrack. It was true in the first place, and when we slow danced to it at a friend's birthday bash...cemented it forever in my heart as mine and his song. It still kind of hurts to hear.

Lifehouse - You and Me
The boy I'll always have feelings for.
When I moved to the States in 7th grade, there was a guy in my classes. He was this small, cute boy with the best smile...incredibly smart, ultra cool, and way out of my league. But he was always friendly with me, and I liked him immediately. As the years went on, we weren't really friends but we'd say hi and chat before classes. My crush faded, as it tends to do in fickle teen years, but it always lingered. Senior year, we were in a few activities together and I got to spend more time with him. He'd gotten much taller, even better looking, and so much more cool...but he still had that boyish smile and friendly demeanor that just made my world tilt. He held my hand for a few seconds once when we were watching a tense sporting event, and I swore in that moment I knew what happiness fulfilled was. Even now, we're still distantly friends and somehow he'll never stop being someone who makes my heart skip.

Howie Day - Collide
The best guy friend through everything.
My best friend during Junior and Senior year was a guy. Sure, I had my girlfriends, but this guy...he was the Best Friend. It was complicated since people always insisted we were dating, or should date; made only messier because he started dating a few friends of mine. It didn't help that he was kind of an asshole to everyone...except me. No matter whose heart he was breaking, he loved, protected and took care of me - which of course caused a lot of issues between me, him, and whatever girl he was with at the time. And we weren't perfect, we had our own rocky, complex, fuzzy relationship to sort out. But despite all the shit high school drama threw at us, this guy and I were strong. We were always friends and we could always count on the other. There's a line in this song that goes "I found I'm scared to know I'm always on your mind" - and it was that line that spoke his name to me. No matter what problems we had, either with each other or because of others, we'd find our way back together.

What song reminds you of that one boy from teen years?
Leave your songs or links in the comments!

9 comments:

  1. Ginger @ GReads!July 10, 2012 at 5:46 AM

    Oh how I love what you did with these songs! Such a clever idea. I did the same thing growing up, always incorporating a song with a certain boy. I hated when the song was ruined though b/c of a stupid boy. HATED IT. And it's funny because that song Collide, I can't listen to it today b/c it was a song I shared with one of my ex's... and as you put it, he slaughtered my heart. Oh boys.

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    1. Ashley @ Ashley Loves BooksJuly 10, 2012 at 8:52 PM

      Thank you! I was kind of nervous doing it since it is really personal, and I got surprisingly emotional writing it out! But gotta embrace the past, right? Definitely agree, it was the worst when a song got ruined because of something that happens with a boy - and I'm sorry that Collide is a bad memory! It's bittersweet to me because the guy and I aren't really friends anymore (we just don't keep in touch), and I hope no bad memories resurfaced!

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  • HollieJuly 10, 2012 at 8:02 AM

    I always associate songs with people, although I try to not do it with crushes otherwise I'll end up not listening to half my iTunes library! I love your song picks though, especially You and Me.

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    1. Ashley @ Ashley Loves BooksJuly 10, 2012 at 8:55 PM

      haha it's so true, so much of my music just sinks me back into memories! Usually I unwittingly do it, and only later do I realize a song makes me think of a specific person. I don't normally listen to Lifehouse, but You and Me played in a my friend's car once while we were on our way somewhere, and it was so weird; the second i started listening to the words, I just knew who it made me think of. And then the only time he and I were ever at a baseball game, together, with him next to me, it started to play!

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  • Estelle / Rather Be Reading BlogJuly 10, 2012 at 11:29 AM

    Great job with this! I definitely had a lot of moments with Lifehouse, let me tell you. Actually you just reminded me of a song I could add to my current Tune In as well. Same boy, happy times. I just heard that Usher song in a coffee shop a few weeks ago, and was like, WOW I totally forgot about this! haha. I was always said when he broke up with Chili? Is that her name? haha.

    P.S. I love love love penguins too!

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    1. Ashley @ Ashley Loves BooksJuly 10, 2012 at 9:04 PM

      haha i love when i hear random songs from the past, it's always fun! And I thought he and Chili would last man, I was so sad when they broke up! TLC + Usher just made sense.

      PENGUINS <3333

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  • fakestephJuly 10, 2012 at 2:59 PM

    I totally love this. SO TOTALLY LOVE THIS. I sometimes have my phone on shuffle in the car and something will come up and it will take me back and it will totally throw me off. So many songs remind me of memories. Off the top of my head I can only think of two. One is Wonderwall. It is from when I was in England and there was something wrong with my visa, so I was unexpectedly flying home and didn't know whether I would be coming back or not. I just remember being drunk and bawling my eyes out at the club and Wonderwall came on and my best friend was like THIS IS OUR SONG. I LOVE YOU. As drunk people do.

    I loved getting to know you better through this post!!!!

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    1. Ashley @ Ashley Loves BooksJuly 10, 2012 at 10:02 PM

      It's always so startling when shuffle throws us down memory lane! And I kind of love your story with Wonderwall (GREAT SONG), except that's very sad you had to leave England early! That must have been stressful to not know what was going to happen with it. But I can totally picture that scene, drunk with your friend and it's like THIS IS OUR SONG OMGGG ILOVEYOUSOMUCH!!!

      Good times.

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  • Sandra @ Waiting For WentworthJuly 15, 2012 at 5:42 PM

    Great idea you had for this week. I love your stories. I haven't been in high school for 25 years, but I still associate certain songs with people or events from high school.

    Waiting For Wentworth

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