The sky was dirty gold one day in the woods behind my East Lansing apartment. This was the middle of summer, and light rain had just swept its hand over the eyes of me and two friends.
As we dirtied our shoes, as we stumbled around puddles and through waves of mosquitoes, we noticed a rainbow draped across the gold. Meshing with lightly dripping leaves, with quiet and motionless branches, it seemed to be the most beautiful thing I had seen in my lifetime.
I think about this rainbow all the time. I think about how I saw it with some of my very best friends, how it broke through the gold — a gold close enough to the sepia of 19th and 20th century photos to say something profound about the past and how we remember it.
I’ve found that I best remember my college experience through music. Yes, I love looking through photos and videos of my time at Michigan State, but I’m at my most emotional and most thankful while listening to the songs my friends and I have cherished and made memories through.
These songs capture so much more than singular moments in time. They unlock sprawling landscapes in which specific cars live, specific apartments, specific couches. I relive countless 3 a.m. nights and do-nothing warm days through them. These songs ring quietly and loudly in the background, and I come to appreciate both my growth and my friends’ growth.
There is laughter in these songs. There are tears. There are signature dance moves and long car rides and beautiful silences shared while looking out at still waters.
And there is the worst silence: the morning after a day in February, where all we could do was hug and share coffee and wish each other well as we took a few hours to ourselves.
Through it all, there were these songs. Now, I’m here: the end. I’m a different person than I was four years ago — I better fucking be — and I’m happy.
Thank you to Impact 89FM. And thank you to its employees — my best friends — for allowing me to remember a rainbow in the middle of summer, to hear the music in it and smile.
