An ode to the songs of my youth

The other day I was driving in my white SUV going from the mall to Homegoods on a street in Cherry Hill, NJ when it hit me that I was living my best suburban soccer mom life except I wasn’t going to a soccer game and I didn’t have any kid’s car seats in my back seat (or have any kids, for that matter…).

But everything else was the same, down to me jamming to songs that made me reminisce about my youth and the “easier days” when the “lying press” wasn’t lying at all* and I didn’t have a car payment (and my car only started 5 out of 7 days a week and definitely not for at least 2 weeks during the middle of a frigid January.)

*they’re not

And that’s when I cried because this song came on over the Bluetooth:

I live by music. I’ll hear a tune and be taken back to the gym where a pimply boy with sweaty hands finally asked me to dance. What ELSE am I supposed to reminisce about when I hear K-Ci & JoJo?

I felt so bad ass because I knew all the words to No Diggity.

I actually still feel badass because I still know all the words. Move over soccer moms (or join me, whatever)

I liked Britney okay. I preferred Backstreet over NSYNC (Don’t tell Nikki), but those songs aren’t what bring me back to my youth.

But Celine Dion’s “My heart will go on” always will:

And not just because I sang that song with the lyrics changed with meanings about God. (I wish I was kidding.)

So while some people think “Semi-Charmed Life” was their high school anthem, mine was:

Not because I was cool and into Radiohead long before everyone else. I obviously knew about it because of the Romeo and Juliet soundtrack.

Here is the BEST version:

Oh, want another example from the best movie of all time (Which I paid homage to here)?

This soundtrack. These songs. Are the anthem(s) of my youth.

Here, I made you a Spotify playlist so you can re-live 1996-1999 with me:

What are the songs of YOUR youth? Do we have any in common?