After my last Instagram poll asking for post ideas ended, someone suggested posting on my favorite media of all time. While I plan to get to the suggestions from the poll soon, I thought this topic would provide a nice, lighthearted way to get started with writing again over break. I hope you enjoy, and I'd love to hear about which items on my lists would make your own lists.
Music
Music has always played a significant role in my life, so this is one of the longer sections of this post. The best I could do was narrow the list down to 35 songs. If you'd like to check out some of these songs, there's a link to a Spotify playlist with all of them here.
Section I: Uptempo/Motivational
These songs are great for working out, but also for other times where I'm looking for some motivation. NF has become one of my favorite artists over the past few years, which is why he has four songs on this list. All of these songs have a great tempo, but also (with the potential exception of Good Feeling) really reflective lyrics.
Paralyzed-NF
Remember This-NF
Oh Lord-NF
Wake Up-NF
If Today Was Your Last Day-Nickelback
Good Feeling-Flo Rida
Section II: Songs For Thinking
This section is the longest, as I almost always rely on music when I need to think. Whether that thinking is simply studying or whether it involves reflecting on my life, these songs are the ones I go to. As you can probably tell from the list, I'm a firm believer that 2000s country makes the best thinking music. And yes, I'm an unashamed (pre-pop conversion) Taylor Swift fan. Florida Georgia Line made it on this list; I'm normally not a huge fan, but I highly recommend their latest single "People Are Different," it's really powerful stuff.
How to Love-Lil Wayne
Airplanes-B.o.B.
Heartless-Kanye West
Like Jesus Does-Eric Church
Beer with Jesus-Thomas Rhett
You’re Gonna Miss This-Trace Adkins
Life is a Highway-Rascal Flatts
Love Story-Taylor Swift
Fearless-Taylor Swift
The Good Stuff-Kenny Chesney
It Won’t Be Like This For Long-Darius Rucker
Springsteen-Eric Church
People Are Crazy-Billy Currington
These Are My People-Rodney Atkins
Good News-Ocean Park Standoff
This Is It-Scotty McCreery
People Are Different-Florida Georgia Line
Humble And Kind-Tim McGraw
Section III: Sad Music
I love sad music. These songs have gotten me through some tough times, but even when I'm in a good mood, I find myself drawn to some of these songs. Each of these songs is on here for a different reason, but all are great.
Breakeven-The Script
Heartbreak Warfare-John Mayer
I Drive Your Truck-Lee Brice
What Hurts The Most-Rascal Flatts
Stay-Post Malone
You Should Be Here-Cole Swindell
Not Over You-Gavin DeGraw
Every Storm (Runs Out of Rain)-Gary Allan
Section IV: What I Believe
Christian music is great because it allows me to refocus on what I believe throughout the day. Often I listen to this music biking to class in the morning or biking back from campus at night. I have a much longer playlist of Christian music on my Spotify, but these are three of my favorites that give me the chills almost every time I listen to them.
God Only Knows-For King and Country
Oceans-Hillsong United
Priceless-For King and Country
TV Shows
1. The Office
Quite a popular choice for favorite TV show, and for good reason, I think. I started watching this show in high school but watched the vast majority of the seasons during my first semester of college last year (and, of course, as one must, I have re-watched most of it since then). I think the reason I love this show is that it’s a comedy with heart: a show capable of causing uncontrollable laughter that also feels real, with relatable characters and some serious themes. This is definitely my show of choice after a tough day.
2. Black Mirror
In my opinion, this show is “scarier” than 90% of the horror movies out there. These stories about technology gone wrong are in most cases plausible and in all cases thought-provoking. I haven’t actually finished this series yet, as it’s a little too stressful to be a good choice in the middle of jam-packed week.
Movies
I’m really not a big movie guy, so this section is quite short. In fact, these are the only movies coming to mind right now that I can confidently say I’ve seen more than twice. I’m only going to discuss the first two, as the second two are very well known.
1. In Time
In this movie, time is literally money. At the age of 25, everyone stops aging, and continued life is based upon acquiring enough time that the clock on one’s wrist never hits zero. In this dystopia, the rich live forever and the poor die young. A fascinating and painstakingly developed thought experiment, this movie is just as impressive the third time you watch it as the first.
2. Limitless
The struggle for a powerful drug with incredible mind-enhancing powers is the premise of this excellent thriller.
3. Inception
4. The Blind Side
Books
It was quite difficult to narrow this down this list to five books, but in the interest of time, I made it happen. I have linked each book to its Goodreads page, if you're looking for a longer (and probably better) description. As a side note, I have found Goodreads to be an excellent platform for tracking reading progress, getting book recommendations, and building "want to read" lists for the future. I highly recommend it for fellow book nerds out there--it also makes building lists like this one quite a bit easier. I think I read all of the books on this list in middle school, so clearly I've been struggling a bit more with book selection lately. Therefore, if you've read any of these or if you have your own favorites, I'd love to hear from you.
1. The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer—Siddhartha Mukherjee
Some of you are probably sick of hearing about this one from me. However, if you still haven't read it, I think you're missing out. This truly is a "biography" of cancer, in that it looks at the disease with great depth and intimacy. It manages to be an authoritative scientific work on the disease, while simultaneously providing gripping personal stories from Dr. Mukherjee's career as an oncologist. Even if you forget some of the technical details, if nothing else this book will give you an appreciation for cancer's complexity and for the unique emotional, psychological, spiritual, and physical challenges it places on not only patients and family but also physicians, nurses, and other hospital staff. This book is especially relevant to me given my career goals, but I think everyone has some personal connection to cancer that would make this book a valuable read.
2. Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption—Bryan Stevenson
This book makes me jealous of my friends going on to work in law in the future. In this book, Bryan Stevenson, founder of Equal Justice Initiative, chronicles his work "defending those most desperate and in need: the poor, the wrongly condemned, and women and children trapped in the farthest reaches of our criminal justice system" (Goodreads). Particularly compelling are Stevenson's stories of defending those on death row. This book will remind you of the best parts of humanity, while also alluding to the worst parts of humanity that have made Stevenson's work necessary. Definitely don't try to read this one without a tissue handy.
3. The Happiness Advantage—Shawn Achor
This book's premise was revolutionary to me when I read it five or six years ago. Conventional wisdom is that success leads to happiness. Many of us know this is not true (beyond a certain base level of monetary stability), based on personal experience if nothing else. However, drawing heavily on his studies at Harvard University, Achor convincingly argues that the converse to this statement is actually true: happiness leads to success. If I remember correctly, the first few chapters focus on providing a great deal of empirical evidence that Achor's claim is accurate. However, Achor doesn't stop here. This book also provides numerous practical ways that one can foster happiness, thereby improving one's own performance. I first learned about "gratitude journaling" and other practices from this book, which today have become even more well-supported by the scientific literature.
4. The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood—James Gleick, Claude Shannon
In this book, Gleick and Shannon profile key information technologies, from the invention of alphabets to today's modern computing. Although some of the subjects it deals with (like cryptography) are somewhat dense, this book still feels like light reading; I'm not sure how, but Gleick and Shannon have written a book equally gripping as it is enlightening. With "information" as the common thread, connections between apparently disparate technologies become increasingly obvious. It is hard to not read this book without gaining a greater appreciation for math, science, and intellectual achievement.
5. The Goldfinch—Donna Tartt
At 777 pages, this is one of the longest books I’ve ever read. It’s also the only fiction book on this list. While I don't remember the exact plot of this one, I do remember that it features gripping prose and extraordinarily well-developed characters. This is the kind of book to go to if you need to step out of your life for a bit, or if you're not afraid to give up a little sleep and keep reading late into the night.