A Birthday Time Capsule
Tomorrow is my birthday. It’s hard to believe another year has passed—and so quickly.
Many years ago, a friend of mine told me how her mom used to make mixed tapes of all her favorite songs from that year, essentially creating a little birthday time capsule of music. I loved this idea and figured that our age of digital streaming made this idea even easier to implement. So, for the last 8 years, I’ve created a playlist with all my favorite songs from that age.
These playlists aren’t just made up of new music from the particular year, but include anything I was personally obsessed with, anything I played on repeat—both new and old. I start each new playlist right around a new birthday and slowly add to it over the course of a year, as I find songs that I’m starting to wear out.
Now, after almost a decade since I started this exercise, each playlist serves as a musical diary, and I can relive—for better or worse—some of my memories from the past. Music has just a strong emotional connection for me, and a single song can take me back to a feeling or love, heartbreak, excitement, etc.
Since I’m about to start another turn around the sun, I thought I’d share my “30” playlist for everyone to enjoy. Since I add to this playlist over the course of a year, it’s more of a put on shuffle and enjoy the ride kind of playlist.
Other Playlists
Here’s a few other birthday playlists in case you’re interested in exploring those. Shockingly, Taylor Swift is included in all of these playlists (she’s had some big moments the last few years!)