Life in a Mixtape: Describing Yourself Through Songs

In this essay about yourself I will be introducing you to a playlist of songs that represent me leaving and coming back to Humboldt County. The songs I will be showing you to introduce some of my life are, Home by Phillip Phillips, Gravity by John Mayer, Upside Down by Jack Johnson, May We All by Florida Georgia Line, Photograph by Nickelback and Tattoos On This Town by Jason Aldean.

The playlist and personal genre are used for a writer to share an autobiographical essay using a list of songs to represent parts of the story. The process of making a playlist is to find a group of random songs that go together to fit the theme that you’re going for. For example, if you were making a workout playlist you would find a list of upbeat songs that go together and make you excited and want to get moving. These genres ask you to write a personal essay about yourself using a set of songs to represent things talked about throughout the paper.

Home by Phillip Phillips. This is me wanting to leave Humboldt County, the area I’d spent my whole life growing up in just shy of the Northern California border. For as long as I could remember I had wanted to leave this small boring town. There was nothing to do here. No shopping or family fun centers, no good food and the same old boring people. I wanted to go somewhere new where I could start over. Somewhere where I could experience new food and things to do and meet all new people. I could even start over and be a different person than I was back home. After talking to my parents and planning for months, I decided I was going to leave Humboldt County and start over. “Just know you’re not alone,’Cause I’m gonna make this place your home”. I was ready to find my new home in the big city.

Gravity by John Mayer represents me getting to follow my dream of leaving Humboldt County and moving to San Francisco. In the song John Mayer says, “gravity is working against me, and gravity wants to bring me down”. Although this might not be what John Mayer was meaning when he wrote this song, these lyrics to me represent breaking free of the trap, being stuck in Humboldt County forever. Growing up in Humboldt County, most kids are taught that you need to leave this place or you won’t ever make it in life. That if you stick around you’ll be broke, or work on a weed farm or become a druggy. Not many kids were taught about the beauties of Humboldt and how you can actually be successful here.

In the song Upside Down by Jack Johnson, “And with each new day, I can feel a change in everything”, are the emotions that started to run through my head. I went from living in a small calm town my whole life to a big city with a fast paced lifestyle. Everything was so different. There were so many things to explore. All kinds of restaurants, parks and so many other new things to check out. I was having so much fun exploring the city. I would ride the bus around to all of the fun tourist spots that my family and I had visited in the past. I would go to Giants baseball games with my roommates and my sister. I was having a blast running around the city exploring.

Eventually school started up and summer ended. I got a job and school started and I no longer had free time all day to explore. I hoped to make friends at my new college but everybody was different at the city college. Not a lot of people were very friendly and they were nothing like my buddies back home. Nobody grew up listening to country music or going to the lake. Most of them had grown up on rap and dressed differently. And it seemed like everyone was always in a hurry. Nobody seemed to be there to make friends. They wanted to go to their classes and get out. All of the glamour of moving to a new place faded away and I slowly realized maybe the city wasn’t for me. I started thinking about home constantly. May We All by Florida Georgia Line was always my go to song when I started thinking about home. It was my favorite country song at the time, so I would play it on the bus ride over to the city college, when I walked to the grocery store, or even just while lying in bed. My friends and family back home were big country fans. No matter if we were in the car, on the lake or just sitting around the campfire we would almost always be listening to country.

Photograph by Nickelback is a song that made me think of the good old days back in Humboldt. As I made the journey home with all of my belongings this special song came on. It brought back memories of when I was a little kid riding in the front seat of my dad’s old white Chevy Silverado. I was in about third grade when we used to listen to this song. Whenever he picked me up from school he would have it playing, and as soon as we got to the start of my street he would let me hop in his lap and drive. I remember we would be driving down the street and I would look up at my dad’s face and he would be smiling and tell me not to tell mom when we got home, even though he knew the first thing I’d do when I walked through the door was go brag to her what dad let me do.

Tattoos on this Town by Jason Aldean reminds me of when I moved back home from San Francisco where I left to go to college. I moved to the city for a few months and hated it. I was so lonely and wanted nothing more than to be back home with my family and all of the beautiful things I missed about Humboldt. After hearing my whole life how Humboldt was a trap and I needed to get out, I finally realized I wanted to move back more than anything. Leaving what I thought was hell for just a short time really made me realize how much I took this place for granted. Finally my parents let me move home and I was so happy. After I moved home I would just drive. I would drive around and see things that brought back memories from growing up in Humboldt. Every little thing reminded me of things that happened earlier in my life that I would probably remember forever. I wanted to leave Humboldt so bad. I was tired of being around all the same old stuff my whole life and being around the same people. But after I left and then came back, my whole view had changed on this place. I would drive by my old schools and be reminded of my friends and all of the memories we had made there. Then I would drive to the beach and see where I found my passion for surfing. Then on my way home I would pass the house of my first ever girlfriend. So many funny memories would pop up of the crazy things I used to do when I was with her. Whether it was the park, beach, my old church or even just an old beat up road through the farmlands, I would be reminded of my past and all of the good and bad memories I made while growing up here.

These songs represent me leaving the place I grew up in to go start a new life in a completely new place. Each song represents me wanting to leave Humboldt County, moving to San Francisco, life in the city, wanting to leave, and moving back home. Although I was saddened to move to my dream place and have it not work out, it made me gain appreciation for the place I grew up in and helped me realize that I needed to start taking advantage of the awesome things my beautiful home has to offer.