I’m having the nostalgia trip of a lifetime preparing for exams.
From the 10th Grade onward, I barely got breathing room between tests and examinations. The way my school worked was on continuously assessing you – to ensure you were “studying”. So you’d go from week to week with a countdown for the next tests already on, and the portion slowly increasing. The academic pressure definitely existed. A couple of things kept me sane at the time – which largely revolved around my blue iPod nano (which I’ve fangirled over numerous times). To date, along with my Kindle, the iPod is representative of everything I am. It still has an unchanged playlist from my bus rides in Grade 12.
I used to use iTunes to segregate music, and download whole albums and discographies. My iTunes also had podcasts I had subscribed to – so I never missed an Episode and was pretty much on top of most of the music I liked at the time. This was largely possible because I always listened to stuff while studying. At a terribly low volume (because of my parents’ fear that I would go deaf), but the music was always in the background. The low volume also ensured I never missed my mothers’ screaming. Or her footsteps. So I avoided all jump scares.
Anyway. Music basically played a huge role, and specifically Above & Beyond, whose Friday podcasts and new releases were basically things I looked forward to and stayed up for.
Now I’ve been playing all my favourite episodes and writing with the same pen I did while studying all those years ago.
I just wish the food I was eating was as good.
Tejas Rao 