A memory stored within a song.

I never listen to the radio in the car, ever. Well, unless times are desperate, and yesterday was one of them days.

In the past I’ve been known to squeeze three or four CDs in my handbag, just in case I fancied listening to something else on my journeys. So, getting in my car without one yesterday was unheard of for me. And sadly, I had put too much faith in technology as apparently connecting my Spotify to my car radio, is much easier said than done.

So, with my phone and car radio not getting along, and no CDs getting crushed in my handbag, I was forced to listen to the radio. It was tragic, as I expected. I flicked through the stations trying to find something. Usually when I’m in such a predicament I find myself listening to Classic FM. I feel like Classic FM is the perfect fall back radio station; I’m not going to know anything on there, and I’m not going to be annoyed by any of it. However, all that I could hear when I whizzed past that station was adverts, typical!

I settled on the local station and waited through what felt like an hour of adverts and eventually, ‘Give Me Everything’ by Pitbull featuring Neyo, Afrojack & Nayer began to play. It was the song I didn’t know I wanted to hear. It was good on a couple of levels, 1) my partner who was in the passenger seat hates Pitbull, so naturally me dancing to it made his head shake, which amused me. And 2) it brought back such a nice memory I had forgotten about.

When I was growing up, I had two best friends and we were inseparable. We swore we would remain friends for ever, be the nonrelated Aunties to each other’s children and be each other’s bridesmaids. But life doesn’t always end up as our young minds once dreamed, and them friendships came to an end.

One friend left first a long time ago, and me and the remaining friend fell out last year. When both friendships came to an end, I found it difficult to let go as I’ve been clinging on to the promise we made each other when we were children.

Back in the day, we used to religiously make cakes on a Friday and go to one friend’s house to eat them. We had a strange rating system for cakes, we would compare the cakes to a celebrity. I remember once I compared a cake to Gary Barlow; I’m not sure if that made it a good cake or not looking back. Come the weekend we would go to my house and when Monday came around, we would go to the other friend’s house. Monday would consist of face packs on our faces, talking about boys, and listening to music, (always was my idea of heaven, who doesn’t love a bit of gossip mixed with a bit of self-care?) it was our routine.

The last memory I have of all three of us together was on a Monday face pack night, dancing to ‘Give Me Everything’ by Pitbull. Laughing at each other as well as the creaky bed we were dancing on, while one of us ballroom danced with a monkey plush. Such a simple memory that I know I have romanticized over the years, but I just love that the memory is stored within a song, safe forever.

When I’ve heard that song in the past, I’ve always felt a sense of sadness that life’s not like that anymore, but we can’t ballroom dance with plushies and laugh at creaking beds forever (Or maybe we can?) Life goes on and things change, which is a concept I’ve been so against until recently.

The thing is, I’m still heartbroken that the friendships are in the past, but I’m slowly coming round to the idea that its good enough that it happened in the first place. There’s a quote I often see pop up online that reads ‘Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened’ and I feel like that completely encapsulates how I felt when I heard that song on the radio.

Our friendship was one that people probably envied, but life has taken all three of us on different paths and that’s okay. I imagine my life as a cake, (maybe a cake comparable to Gary Barlow, who knows) with the songs that have memories attached are sprinkled on top like hundreds and thousands, and I love that.

I’ll always have the memories, they’re safe, and they’ll no doubt pop up throughout my life, bringing memories to the forefront and putting a smile on my face.