Nat's Declassified School Survival Playlist
Nat's Declassified School Survival Playlist
written by natália oprzadek-vodilková
photographed by hailey kroll
A sitcom from 2004 might’ve helped a number of Nickelodeon-watchers survive junior high, but what about a survival guide to college? Post-grad? How about life? How about (as per Jaden Smith) – the socioeconomic state of the world right now!? This feels unfair, Ned! Where’s the survival guide for that?! In your disappointing absence, I’ve tweaked your concept to meet our needs these days: Nat’s Declassified School Survival Playlist. I hope that’s alright. One of the first songs to ever make me cry was ‘Colors of the Wind’ from the original Pochahontas. I loved the song so much that I begged my Mom to download it to her iPod immediately, so that I could listen anytime I wanted. I still tear up every time I hear it, the most recent time being last week. Maybe it was the nostalgia of listening to the song again, or maybe I had just spent too much time reading the news, but when I heard ‘Colors of the Wind’ playing over a video of Yellowstone on my screen, I just melted into tears.
Can you sing with all the voices of the mountain?
Can you paint with all the colors of the wind?
Instantly I felt like a kid again, watching my favorite princess sing and dash through the forest. My mom was right– music is the closest thing we have to time travel or mind-reading. With the weight of such a heavy world coming down hard on our shoulders and spirits, especially as of lately, this song from my childhood reminded me of the true power of music. It’s the one way we can always find understanding and comfort, even when we are alone. It transcends time, place, language, and walks of life. Our favorite songs become the soundtracks to our stories, holding the power to make life smoother, warmer, and less lonely. Our playlists become lifelines, a rhythm to lean on as we carry ourselves through harder things.
When you call my name, it’s like a little prayer, I’m down on my knees, I wanna take you there!
As a young girl, I really thought this song was about praying. Now I’m older and I’ve come back around to believing that a prayer can be anything you want. It can be a song, a dance, an act of resistance, or love itself. Anyway, all the women I knew adored Like a Prayer. I learned the words to it for that very reason– I loved scream-singing along with my Mom in the car, and my Babka who didn’t speak English, but spoke fluent Madonna. I sang it with my cool older cousin and her friends, and later, with other girls in college or at apartment parties. Every time I hear those lyrics, I have to smile. It’s my Mom’s favorite song and she loves to sing, but to put this nicely, she wasn’t exactly blessed with perfect pitch. She loves to make a joke of it and sing intentionally bad, shouting loudly and off-key at you, but she’s so happy during the song that it’s infectious. It’s true, you don’t have to be good at something to enjoy it. You can grow happy by osmosis if you open your heart to it.
I'm beautiful in my way
'Cause God makes no mistakes
I'm on the right track, baby
I was born this way
No matter gay, straight, or bi
Lesbian, transgendered life
I'm on the right track, baby
I was born to survive
No matter black, white, or beige
Chola or orient made
I'm on the right track, baby
I was born to be brave!
My love for music was a hand-me-down. Love and compassion for others was second nature from there. I remember Mom blasting music while cleaning or cooking, and myself dancing and straining for the notes alongside her till I was out of breath. She had a hot pink IPod Touch, loaded with our favorite songs. They were mostly late 90s and early 2000s classics with a mix of Slovak folk and jazz, and always playing in our house. When she got a new phone I begged her to give the IPod to me, and she agreed under one condition: treat my songs with respect. She handed it over with a matching pair of hot pink earphones– athletic ones, the older kind that wrapped around the outside of your ear. Now, I could listen to music anywhere and anytime I wanted.
Lady Gaga’s Born this Way was my personal favorite. At that age, I had a difficult time making friends. I was the new girl and often got picked on for having a weird accent and ‘stinky food’ for lunch (courtesy of my daily cabbage rolls). That song made me feel like the coolest girl in the world. It reminded me of singing to Madonna in the car and my Mom, who reassured me that weird was actually a backhanded compliment –they’re calling you unique, Natalka. I didn’t see it then, but that IPod gave me the courage to connect with others by asking if they wanted to hear my favorite song. I realized I still do the same thing now, sending people playlists and songs to express my closeness to them.
In the words of Gloria Gaynor: I will survive! Oh, I will survive! Long as I know how to love, I know I'll stay alive!
I often ponder how the fear of failure or embarrassment has influenced all of our choices – our lives, jobs, beliefs, the country we inhabit. How often has this fear created isolation, where it could’ve fostered a connection? Maybe our obsession with being successful and correct all the time is impeding on our destiny to freely connect as humans. The right playlist can become a survival guide, creating a safe place for our emotions to be seen, heard, and understood. Unfortunately, none of us can wave a magic wand and erase all forces of evil and sadness. However, I still believe humanity’s most valuable quality is our empathy. Let us never stop loving each other and our communities. Let us never stop fighting for what we believe in. Even when the world feels bleak or hopeless, we can always turn to music to remind us of the indomitable human spirit. Listen to your favorite playlist, send it with a friend, and take a deep breath. We will survive!