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Madi Steinbauer is a 2013 Bellwood-Antis graduate who is currently attending Penn State University. You can visit her blog here.

“Music was my refuge, I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness” – Maya Angelou

It seems like there is always a song to fit your mood.

A lot of people go for ballads when they are down, pop music when they are happy, dubstep to dance to, rap to drive to…but me, i’m different.

I have the bad habit of listening to a song over and over again until I learn the lyrics. And no matter how fast or slow the beat is, I listen to the lyrics. I don’t just hear the beat and background music.

And when I am in a certain mood, I go to the songs where the lyrics fit what I am feeling.

I could sit and listen to music all day.

It is my escape. It is the way I can just leave for a little while and know that the person singing has the same feelings that I do.

And not only can music make you escape, they can flood you with such great memories.

Brown Eyed Girl by Van Morrison throws me straight back to my childhood.

Eleanor Rigby by The Beatles remind me of my Uncle Mike, who introduced me to the band.

When The Sun Goes Down by Kenny Chesney reminds me of how I sing to my Gram.

She Hates Me by Puddle Of Mudd reminds me of how my Dad and I used to sing to each other and he would look back in the backseat to make sure I wasn’t saying the F word.

The Exit by Lydia reminds me of a trip back from State College after a concert and we drove past an exit sign as soon as the song came on.

Ride by Twenty One Pilots reminds me of a long trip to New Jersey.

Love Me Like You Do by Ellie Goulding reminds me of a summer of fun.

Let It Go by James Bay reminds me of when I finally realized to let go of things.

See You Again by Wiz Khalifa reminds me of my friends going through a hard time and of the night I said goodbye to a house full of memories.

So many songs, so many memories. Good or bad, I can listen to music and be brought straight back to a time and place.

And that’s why sometimes it can be hard to listen to certain songs. You don’t want to feel the way you did the last time you heard it or you don’t want to remember the things you did when listening to it.

But it is so worth it to let yourself relive those memories at times.

It can be relieving to listen to a song and realizing that those are just memories and it is perfectly okay to let yourself feel the way you felt during the memory or the opposite of how you felt. And it is also perfectly okay to listen to that song and feel happy or sad based on what the music is or what the lyrics are.

Most of all, if something happens in your life…it is perfectly okay to listen to something that suits what your going through.

I have listened to See You Again by Elle King a lot lately and it suited one of the hardest moments in my life.

I listen to Stressed Out by Twenty One Pilots when I have a mental breakdown.

I listen to 679 by Fetty Wap when I want to blast music and sing to my roommates and be silly for them.

The other good thing about music… is that it can attach people in a way that I can’t explain.

There has been only one person I have met in my entire life that listens to the vast majority of music that I listen to.

All genres, all kinds. I would text them or run up to them saying “listen to what I just found, you will love it.”

And I don’t think that there could be a better connection between someone. The car rides aren’t filled with silence, you can feel the energy of listening to the song playing. The free time isn’t boring because it was filled with talk of music or music in general. We would introduce new bands and new songs to eachother. We would make memories filled with dancing or singing to a song, having the deepest conversation about the artist, or listening to a whole album just because we wanted to.

We wouldn’t talk about the song itself, we would talk about the lyrics. How sometimes The Killers songs made no sense at all or how Kodaline can hit you so hard in the emotions that it could take your breath away.

There is no better feeling that talking about a passion that you have, with someone else who feels the same way about it that you do.

There are a lot of times that I sit in my room, put on my Rhapsody, and just search. Search for new talent, search for a song to fit me, search for another song to make a memory out of.

And that…that is when I am happiest.

Music has more talents than just being something catchy to listen to.

It can give you a memories, it can help you escape, it can make you happiest when you’re sad and help acknowledge your emotions. It can make you think harder about what the artist is trying to do, it can help you concentrate, it can help you learn to actually listen to words and not just the noise behind it. Music can help you.

Music has many talents.

In my mind, there is no better thing.

And there is also no better feeling.