Every year around my birthday, I can’t help but contemplate mortality and question where the past 5, 10, 15 years have gone.
Because, you see, as a single, childfree person, I lack markers to signify the passage of time. My life isn’t delineated by pre-kid and post-kid eras. Or pre-husband and post-husband eras for that matter.
My life hasn’t really changed at all over the past 15 years.
And lately, the anniversaries of certain albums and movies are totally blindsiding me. We’re talking 20-year, 30-year anniversaries. Almost half-my-life-ago anniversaries.
Take a walk down memory lane with me. 1994 was a seminal year for me, musically speaking. When I hear or listen to songs from any of the following albums, I immediately transform into a 19-year-old:
Sweater Song. Say It Ain’t So. Every single freaking song on this album.
This was a different sound for R.E.M. Lots of loud guitars. And it rocked.
On the way to a concert supporting this album in Philly, my friends and I memorized the lyrics to:
What’s the Frequency, Kenneth?
I can listen to certain R.E.M. ballads on repeat for a long time. A looong time. Two of which are on this album:
What to say. Longview. Basket Case. This album still makes me want to bounce off the walls.
The Cranberries: No Need to Argue
The Cranberries was on heavy rotation during my college years. Two favorites from this album:
This next one counts for both music and movie…
I’ve probably watched this movie and listened to its soundtrack around a hundred times since their 1994 release:
How can this movie be 20 years old???????
It’s an amazing soundtrack. Can’t get enough of these two heartbreakers:
1994 was a good year for movies, as well.
Forrest Gump, Legends of the Fall, Shawshank Redemption, Pulp Fiction, Little Women, Clerks, Four Weddings and a Funeral = Classics, all.
Lastly, this almost had me falling out of my chair:
Sixteen Candles is 30 YEARS OLD. I don’t recall watching this movie when I was 9 years old. But I came across it at some point during my teen years. John Hughes was a genius.
And so ends my stroll. Do you have any favorite movies or albums from 1994?
fancenance.com 
1994 was the year I lived in Berkeley, CA! My friend Katie and I drove around listening to Liz Phair’s album Exile in Guyville over and over. And I worked at a movie theater!
That’s awesome! I need to hear more about your time in CA.
Twice, three times, maybe more–I’ve read this post over and over because it brings up some great memories!
I think we all have “song markers” for our lives. When we hear the music, it’s great to think about what we were doing and what we should have been doing (or shouldn’t have been doing) at the time those songs were popular.
As for the idea that single or childless people don’t have “life markers,” I tend to think that singles do have markers — but their markers are different than the markers of “significance” that many cultures emphasize. And different is good!
Yes, we all have a soundtrack to our lives, right? I agree: different is good. 🙂