nyminutenow joni mitchell night ride home

Brings back memories.

It’s not necessarily my favorite song in the world. But if there’s a tune that can stop me in my tracks and vividly capture a specific period/year in my life, it’s Joni Mitchell’s “Nothing Can Be Done” from her Night Ride Home album. In fact, I am a bit afraid to listen to the whole record; it brings back odd, bittersweet memories.

The song came out in 1991, however, I only got my hands on it (most likely via a writable cd; gosh, talk about instantly dating oneself!) sometime in 2003—a year that some of my closest friends would agree was quite THE year: We were twenty-something magazine editors working, living, dealing with anything and everything that came along while having the time of our lives. Like the show, Girls—but with much less existential angst. Our jobs were fab and fulfilling! We had amazing bosses. Trips out of town were aplenty. Work felt like play.

Back to the song… Every time it comes up on iTunes, I get incredibly nostalgic. And then I remember very specific times from that year, such as…

• Going through my first breakup. Dealing with the aftermath of it, learning and determining the social graces that come along with smashing someone’s heart. And having one’s heart broken as well (or not well) in the process.

• Visiting Singapore for the first time for the MTV Video Music Awards! So much fun. I remember listening to “Nothing Can Be Done” on the bus en route to sight-seeing. (I went back the second time the same year, but by then, my anthem was “Fade” by Solu Music, and I started listening to house music. Hmm…I now realize, that’s probably why Joni Mitchell’s song was so distinctive, like a bookmark, a punctuation of a chapter.)

• Learning about…dating! This is where I somewhat channel Tina Fey and say that I (finally) had a boyfriend…at 20. And then we broke up. Hence, my “dating” life officially kicked off at 23. Kinda late, right?! I knew NOTHING about boys and was very, very naive. Now I laugh about it, but that being said, all the things that I learned had a profound effect on how I approach and view life and love. From discovering the value of good character, differentiating love from attraction, caring for oneself, and even learning about what it means to be faithful (i.e. if a guy with a girlfriend gives you special treatment, no matter how PG, it warrants a conversation about emotional cheating and, FYI, karma is a b*tch), these benchmarks set the stage for making better decisions as time unfolds.

2003 was a springboard for learning, a smorgasbord of life lessons packed into one incredibly fun and exciting year.

Then, I met my husband in 2004. 🙂

Okay, so that’s my impromptu trip down memory lane! Fast, fast forward to a decade after, my iTunes library is a hodgepodge of songs that feels somewhat like a diary. Interestingly, many of the songs from that time in my life make for a great yoga playlist!

And, speaking of music and also going slightly off-topic (movies), I’ve heard good things about Keira Knightley and Mark Ruffalo’s Begin Again, which I hope to get to watch soon. 😉

Image courtesy of Music-Bazaar.com; video courtesy of sonicboy19 on YouTube.