MEComposing

Memories have a smell... those liminal moments months or years or decades ago, where, when you do think about them, you actually get to smell your surroundings again, remember the exact thoughts and feelings you were thinking and feeling then...

Ergo, i've often said... songs that have touched me have a smell... because they're one of the few things that are sure to propel me back in time... and make me long somewhat for who I was then...

And of course, make me smile at how far i've gone... and how much the world has changed... while some things have remained the same...

Somewhere In My Past by Julie Vega would always bring me to that night, when I was watching the late actress' funeral on TV. I must have been around 6 yrs. old then, too early to really be fanatic about something... but I cried for her.

Sad movies would always be a favorite... I remember back in college, I alone got the song perfect after a professor tested us on our listening and retaining abilities... My secret? Heck, i've been hearing the song sung to me by my favorite aunt all my life, whether she's telling me to keep off the floor she's polishing, or coaching me to eat what food she's prepared for me, or just stroking my hair to sleep.

And Eternal Flame by Bangles would always be the summer afternoons at the apartment complex where my aunt lived, with me standing on the stairs fronting the complex, looking around the neighborhood and just waiting for the day to end, before going in to eat dinner that my grandma cooked. It would always be summer vacations spent in Bacoor with them... of looking forward to the town fiesta and the Pailaw at the Plaza... of my then crush, a boy named Joey Villapania (?)...

I saw the Sign by Ace of Base would be one of the danc-y tunes my baby cousins would be dancing to, wowing me at how they're growing too fast too soon... and making me realize that I didn't much like vacationing there anymore...

Basta't Kasama Kita was my first slow dance... and a first step into the cruel and exciting world of boy-girl relationships...

I've been waiting for you and Crying in the Rain would always be the songs pasted on my wall... from a song mag, at age 13, when I started sleeping with our radio beside my pillow... being lulled to sleep by the canned music, my favorite always being Make it Easy (on me) by Sybil. It was also during this time when i'd first really fall in love... and when the melodramatic me would often imagine myself breaking up with my guy, and having that song for a break-up song... and yes, we met at the height of Humanap Ka Ng Panget, which is why I can't ever hate that song, no matter how jologs it seems to me now.

Prom Night would always be Please Forgive Me and not Got to Believe in Magic... and prom would always be the greatest crush of my life...

Never Say Goodbye by Bon Jovi is my theme song with my bestfriend back in high school. She was the one that said it's her theme song for me, and it kinda just stuck... so please don't ask explanations about any of us "losing more in some backseat". And saying goodbye to my high school friends and Paco Catholic School in general woud always be best reminded by For Just A Moment, that theme song from the movie St. Elmo's Fire.

Oh and by the way, I still know the steps to Ice, Ice Baby , THE dance song for me for highschool, though STARS comes a close second. And I still can't sit still when I hear How Gee (?), 2 Legit to Quit, Bring that Booty (over here), Rave Stump, Shine, X-TA-C, and other dance songs of that era. I'd forever miss Dr. Alban and would always adore Milli Vanilli songs.

Not that high school and college wasn't about Battle of the Bands and concerts too... I couldn't appreciate Eraserheads then but was already a fan of Side A. Set You Free was being performed on our grounds as I watched a friend cry because she knows it's about time she confronts her unfaithful and miserable boyfriend.

I Don't Wanna Talk About It would be the song my college friend Allee would be singing oh-so-finely to us for four years. It didn't really have any other significance aside from the fact that it's a very simple song... and we all loved its melody.

NGO volunteer work would be I Will Be Here, where I met Alvin, who will always be one Special Memory. He'd forever make me a fan of The Company after this... and when love deemed it right to separate us... we both realized how true it was that There's No Easy Way to Break Somebody's Heart.

Someone told me that " If Ever You're In My Arms Again, i'd love you much better..." but it wasn't meant to be... so i guess, just like that dreamy trip to Corregidor, That's The Way It Is...

And then I realized that I'd Rather have both good and bad times with JRA... and know that ours is an Everlasting Love...

There are a lot of other songs i've attached some memory to... old chants from old games and old songs we've modified for fun... songs which were just sooo popular at that time... or songs whose lyrics were just so reflective of how I was feeling...

And of course, i'd be forever Dancing Queen to a lot of friends, am sure...