These 24 songs were the heartbeat that propelled me from class to class, building to building, street to street, dorm to dorm and bus to bus. While it was difficult to narrow down to the 24 songs that truly captured my college experience, these songs — in sequential order — represent my journey from my first year to my fifth year at Michigan State.
My journey started in Akers Hall in a quad suite that felt empty. I spent my days and evenings after class biking/bussing/walking to Wilson Hall where my two friends from home lived. The first five songs on this playlist soundtracked these treks across campus. I remember listening to “bmbmbm” by black midi for the first time on a “top tracks of 2019 so far” playlist on one of these cross campus walks and being shocked and impressed by the noises I was hearing. I remember hanging in my friend’s dorm in Wilson Hall, watching them play Rocket League on their way-too-big-for-a-room TV while listening to “Les Fleurs” by Minnie Ripperton on their speakers. This year of school is when I realized that I wanted to listen to more and more music all the time and dive into artists’ full discographies with no hesitation.
When getting back from my freshman spring break trip to Gatlinburg, Tennessee, our campus soon sent us all home and we finished out the semester online. These lonely and isolated times led me to dive further into music and truly find a passion for listening to full discographies and finding as much new music as possible. This is where I found songs like “Real Life” by banzai florist and “Cherry Jerry Citrus” by Hey Cowboy!. I also started doing playlist exchanges with a bunch of my friends and brother, sharing all the cool stuff I was listening to and vice versa.
My second year at MSU took place in the University Village campus housing with three roommates and absolutely no one on campus. With all classes being online for Fall 2020 and Spring 2021, I was in group isolation with lots of free time being spent playing video games with my roommates or traveling to my friends’ apartments off campus. With my life being limited to three locations at most times, I loved driving around in my Jeep Wrangler and blasting music in my car around campus with no one to annoy. This is when I blasted tracks like “People” by Yellow Days and “Big Fig Wasp” by King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard. I especially enjoyed the spring, when it was sunny enough to take the roof off my jeep and enjoy the unusual quiet of East Lansing.
At this point in my college career, I was on my second major and would soon realize that I might need to move to a third. By the end of my Junior year, I was a Food Science major and would finally feel like I found my place. I had also found my place in the fall when I joined Impact 89FM. I had always listened, but never actually thought I’d join a club or campus org like Impact.
My friends had always known me as “the music guy,” so at Sparticipation they pressured me to talk to the people at the Impact tent. As I walked up wearing my MGMT – Little Dark Age shirt, it turned out they were playing that exact song. They convinced me that I had to sign my name down, as it was too coincidental, and I happily obliged. After going to meetings and the open house I was absolutely hooked. The songs that soundtracked this year were “Twin Plagues” by Wednesday and “The Place Where He Inserted The Blade” by Black Country, New Road. These songs represent songs I probably wouldn’t have ever found if I didn’t join the Impact.
My last two years at Michigan State were spent in a house on Saginaw, in an apartment really far from campus and being at the radio station too much. Me and all my friends from Impact would spend time working together, as well as partying together, which led to us make sure that “Dance Yrself Clean” by LCD Soundsystem was played in its entirety at most functions. These two years blur together, as I spent them with the people I will truly miss seeing every day.
I will miss leading Street Team every Monday and seeing all the hilarious, unique, cool and —sometimes — nice people file in and take part in my last-minute-scraped-together meetings and brackets. I will miss the intricacies and hilarities of my roommates and friends across East Lansing that kept me endlessly entertained. I will miss staying up way too late on a weeknight when I have an 8 a.m. class the next day. I will, with all of my heart, miss this place and the people that come with it.
Will I miss Impact more than MSU? The answer is absolutely, and it makes me truly sad that I can’t spend every day rotting in the basement of Holden Hall, getting way less work done than I am supposed to and hanging out with the coolest people I know and may ever know. My life would be different than ever today if I had never committed to the Impact, and I would hate to see that life.
