Life Goes On - Ode to Depressing Songs

I spent two depressing periods in the company of two of my favorite artists - Tracy Chapman and Tupac Shakur.

The first one was thanksgiving holiday 1993. Everyone left the campus, and I was stuck in my room with a few loaves of bread and some jars of PB&J, studying for upcoming finals for my first semester in college. My roommate Malcom left his CD player, and I put on Tracy Chapman's If these are the things on single repeat. If you're not familiar with the lyrics, you can read them here, but here's a quick sample.

"I only have nightmares
And wake up with cold sweat
Coming through my pores
Why don't I dream any more?"
(source: Lyricsfreak.com)

After listening to this song again and again for about 30-some hours, I tossed the books away, went for a walk through the empty corridors and decided that I'll never listen to this song. Even now, I downloaded this song onto my iPod, but haven't listened to it once. It's nice to have it though, like a photo album that you never open.

The next bout was summer of 1998. Kachi Nwabuko, my co-worker at the library introduced me to 2pac and gave me one of the CDs called All EYEZ ON ME. He said that I'd like the poetry in the lyrics. I did like the album, and bought it myself the next day. But I only listened to one song over the weekend, for about 70-80 times before I relapsed into a weekend long depression and soul searching. Below are some lyrics, complete lyrics can be found here,

"But now that you're gone
I'm in the zone
Thinkin' I don't wanna die all alone
But now ya gone
And all I got left are stinkin' memories
I love them niggas to death
I'm drinkin' Hennessy
While tryin' ta make it last
I drink a 5th for that ass
When you pass
Cause life goes on"
(source: hitemup.com)

What did these depressing songs teach me?

1. I need to take myself more lightly, and take time out to nurture my dreams
2. Life always goes on, and everything is transient
3. We should be thankful for every moment, because that moment will surely pass

And the biggest lesson of all?

DO NOT PUT DEPRESSING SONGS ON REPEAT!

Currently, the three most played songs on my iPod are:

1. Hips don't lie - Shakira (75 times)
2. Control Myself - LL CoolJ (45 times)
3. The World's Greatest - R Kelly (40 times)

And I feel like on the top of the world. Well, not really, but you know what I mean. :-)