Hey guys!
I wanted to do a post on my winter break, since I’ve spent the last four weeks away from campus and taking a much needed mental/physical break from school. However, since everyone on here is posting about their holidays, and I feel like all my posts are pretty much just text and images, I’m trying out something new, and describing my break through one of my favorite mediums: music. I created a playlist with 12 songs below, and will use it to highlight my top 12 memories from break 🙂 Let’s hop right in!
- Finishing finals!! [While We’re Young, Jhene Aiko] Jhene Aiko has been one of my favorite artists since 2014, and when she dropped this album at the end of last year, it flew to the top of my list real quick. It’s a happy, light and peaceful song, somewhat reflective of how I felt after finishing a really tough finals week. Finals can be rough, especially with upper division classes where they can determine 40-50% of your grade, but I got through it, and felt so free afterwards.
- Road trip with brother! [California, The Lagoons] I’m from Northern California, and I have a twin brother that goes to school in Pasadena (if you ever meet me in person, I talk about both of these things nonstop, I really love the bay and also my brother a lot). Anyway, he has a car, so when our breaks line up, we drive home together. This song is chill and a perfect road trip song, and while we didn’t get to take the longer, scenic way home because of the huge fires in SB, we had a killer playlist, including this song, and stopped a few times to take pictures of a gorgeous Central Valley sunset.
- Sunrise in San Francisco [hold on, flor] I forced my nocturnal brother to drive up to SF for sunrise at 6am so we could watch the bay light up and beautiful sunrise colors fill the sky over the Golden Gate bridge. It was exactly as poetic as I’m describing it here, it was honestly so beautiful and quiet and cold. So cold, in fact, that we sat in the car warming up for a bit afterwards, blasting this song.
- Family time [Caribbean Queen, Billy Ocean] My dad came home from work singing this song, and I honestly had no idea what he was saying until he yelled at our Google Home to play it for me (how bay area was that sentence?). I love being at school, but coming home and relaxing with my family is always the best part of break, and moments like these make Cupertino a special place. We had a ton of fun eating ice cream, drinking coffee and catching up together; my entire family is addicted to caffeine, and we all have a sweet tooth (Sweet teeth? unclear).
- Editing an end-of-year video [Late Night, ODESZA] I put together a 2017 recap video while I was at home, and used this song as the backtrack. I looove photography and video editing, so this project was a ton of fun, and served as a really great way to enjoy the memories that 2017 brought me. Definitely induced a lot of nostalgia, but it was totally worth it. I uploaded the video on facebook right before new years, but I just put it on youtube today, check it out here!
- Mexico with family and friends [Mi Gente, Baby I Won’t, DNA] I was lucky enough to spend 5 days in Mexico with some of my family friends, relaxing on the beach and exploring the incredible jungles of Puerto Vallarta. I got to catch up with some of the people I grew up with, rode horses in the jungle, played a lot of charades, watched beautiful sunsets and danced so much. Christmas was definitely spent in paradise. Mi Gente and Baby I Won’t were our jams, and DNA was my brother’s favorite song at the time (besides Man’s Not Hot: Christmas Edition).
- New Years, Resolutions, Reflection [Two High, Moon Taxi] New Years is my favorite holiday because I’ve always been obsessed with the idea of starting over. I love resolutions and even if New Years is just another day, it feels like a fresh start. I had a wonderful new years with the people I went to Mexico with, and spent a lot of the days leading up to it reflecting on my thoughts, both for the year I was leaving behind and the one I was just embarking upon. This song kind of encapsulates the reflective vibes of those few days.
- Supermoon [The Other, Lauv] Ok so this song doesn’t really have anything to do with this memory, I honestly just was trying super hard to get tickets to see Lauv this day. Anyway, I spontaneously decided to go hike and shoot the supermoon on January 1st with my family, and while the moon was kind of hidden behind clouds initially, I got some killer shots at the end. Was tons of fun and I got to mess around with my camera, which I always love experimenting with.
- Saying goodbye to my roommate [My thoughts on you, the band CAMINO] one of my roommates, Eddie, is going to study abroad in Maastricht this semester, and I already miss him so much!! He lives in the Bay but was in Taiwan most of break– thankfully we got to catch up before he left, and while it was raining like crazy the day we hung out, we had a wonderful time eating hotpot and drinking overpriced coffee. I put together a playlist for him, and this was one of the songs on it because it makes me think of him!!
- Starting the new semester [Sycamore Girl, Rex Orange County] I’M STOKED FOR THIS SEMESTER!! While this isn’t a break memory per se, I’m having a positive first week and I really like all my professors. Excited for the memories to come, hopefully including a Rex Orange County concert :))
That’s my break recap! Hope this unconventional format was a little more exciting than my boring text and photos.
Peace out and fight on!
Rhea
