THE MASK

I had an emotional rollercoaster while compiling this playlist. As I scrolled through my library, playing some of the songs as I selected the rest of them, I was flooded with memories of my infamous freshman year of college. I’d say that the rap section of Apple Music definitely was either used for classwork or for the extensive hours spent playing video games because there was not much else to do for leisure that I liked. As the school year droned on, my almost constant demand for music led me to dig deeper into the work of my favorite artist, Young Thug. The list of SoundCloud songs are some of my favorite songs to this day, and are a constant reminder to me of my freshman year. I can recall every day as I would go to and from soccer practice at 6:45 in the morning with my AirPods in my ears, and seemed to never get enough of the newly discovered Young Thug content. As for the country part of the compilation, it is responsible for another side of my conscience. Instead of reminding me of the grind and everyday activities of school and soccer, it reflects the memories that I have in the early stages of my relationship with my girlfriend. I can recall from these songs the countless amounts of hours I’d be at her dorm, and I am reminded of walking from the new Sixth College to Marshall College, through the cold, wind, rain, or all three to make my way to her to spend time with her. Music has always been a big part of my life, and it guided me through some of the toughest and best times during my freshman year of attending UCSD. Looking back on it, and compiling this playlist, my outlook on how that year went for me seems better than what I may have thought it was while I endured the time period. The three album covers or song art that I included belong to the songs that produced some of the most nostalgia for me, taking me back to my time during lockdown at UCSD. “Cameras” by Jay Critch is a song that flashes my mind back into my dorm, working on my data science work, struggling to learn virtually in my first experience with coding. “Hey I” by Young Thug is the epitome of the feeling that the SoundCloud compilation gave me that year. My favorite artist playing in my ears, giving me motivation to get to and from practice and class everyday, it drove me to keep fighting during challenging times. “7 Summers” by Morgan Whallen was the song that me and my girlfriend had played on repeat. As a result, the song takes me back to quality times with her and experiencing having a girlfriend for the first time.