Comfort music for students with decisions to make

Spring is fast approaching, and while I’d love to jabber about flowers blossoming and the birds coming back, let’s face it – we live in Vancouver. At best, you might be able to enjoy the aforementioned sights for an hour every few weeks when it’s miraculously not raining torrentially. And you’ll be in class. I’m personally focusing my thoughts on an aspect of spring that is less depressing than the weather, application deadlines.

If you know me personally, you know that decisions like what major I want to go into or whether or not to move to campus keep me in a perpetual state of quarter-life crisis. I don’t think this is uncommon for university students – many of us are trying to figure out what we want to do for the rest of our life, and sometimes we believe the decisions we make now will have the colossal impact on what we spend the rest of our life doing. It’s helpful to have something other than ice cream or beer to help you cope emotionally. Music is great because it won’t make you fat.

Don’t have the right music? Do not fear. As the self-proclaimed king of blowing things out of proportion, I have been collecting an expansive library of songs that have helped me get out of numerous uncertainty-related funks over the years. I’ve compiled a couple of the best in hopes you might find something to help you cope with anxiety this season of decision-making.

“Uncharted” – Sara Bareilles

This song undoubtedly belongs at the top of the list. Sara Bareilles (“Love Song”, “King of Anything”) describes it as “all about being scared of the unknown, and realizing that the only way around it is through it.”  Honestly, in my opinion, it is the ultimate song for dealing with not knowing what’s going to happen.

“I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight” – U2

I read that they wrote this for students at a university… Don’t know if that’s true or not anymore because I rely on Wikipedia for 90% of the information I acquire and it doesn’t seem to say anymore. Anyway, when Bono wails that “it’s not a hill, it’s a mountain as you start out the climb”, the small part of me that died during midterms is resuscitated.

“Don’t Look Back” – She & Him

I know Zooey Deschanel dancing around in a video reminiscent of a Gap commercial might not be for everyone, but if that’s the case, at least just listen to the song. It’s like comfort food for your ears (hopefully that expression didn’t evoke the awkward imagery for you that it did for me).

I should also note this song seems to be about relationships, but just pretend love is a metaphor or something. If you’ve ever been single, you’ve done it before and know how (and therefore, if you’re like me, you’re really good at it).

ALSO, it’s currently featured as the “Music Video of the Week” on iTunes, meaning you can download it for free right now. I do believe the week ends tonight, so I’m not sure that it’ll last too long. *02/20/11 UPDATE: Still there.

“Syndicate” – The Fray

The Fray (“How to Save a Life”, “Just Say Yes”) makes it easy to imagine your struggle to finish your degree as something so much more epic than it may be. The first few lines are enough for me to want to include it on this list.

“Send Me On My Way” – Rusted Root

Maybe I’m biased because this has been my main comfort song since Matilda, but I find it hard to believe anyone can listen to this song without feeling a little bit better about anything. And if the music alone isn’t enough to make you smile, the ridiculously awesome 90’s music video should do it.

I hope somebody finds some new music out of this – I tried to avoid obvious picks (sorry, no Gloria Gaynor). If anyone has any comfort music that tops their list, let me know; I’ve got last-day-of-reading-break blues to get over.