THE MAIN CHARACTER SOUNDTRACK
Has there ever been a moment in your life where you felt like the main character? Like you’re Sam from The Perks of Being A Wallflower, standing through the car’s sunroof and looking beyond the tunnel? That’s how I feel sometimes; walking along the pier with a nice cold coffee, earbuds in, and watching the water sway from side to side. The most essential part of having a main character moment though? The playlist. Music can easily make or break the moment you’re living in. The song on shuffle could be too serene or too loud; the bass could be banging through your eardrums when all you want is peace. My favourite main character songs make me feel like You’ve Got Mail’s, Kathleen Kelly, walking around New York City in the fall. The romanticization of life started with a 15 second audio on Tik Tok telling people to start pretending to be the main character in their story to create long-lasting memories. The audio, which goes, “You have to start romanticizing your life. You have to start thinking of yourself as the main character. Because if you don’t, life will continue to pass you by, and all the little things that make it so beautiful will continue to go unnoticed. So take a second and look around and realize that it’s a blessing for you to be here right now”, has led to an Internet phenomenon with over 5.5 billion views under the #maincharacter hashtag. Spotify has taken part in this trend with their “my life is a movie” playlist, Instagram accounts are now flooded with photos capturing random memories rather than perfectly curated feeds, and short video edits of users making the most of their lives have gone onto many of your pages. Tagged as 'main character energy', many believe that romanticizing one's life is beneficial towards improving their mental health. Raising tiny little moments that may seem insignificant on a pedestal has allowed people to cherish their lives rather than face a world full of negativity. Whether it be just walking around town with your friends or watching the sunset, this type of lifestyle encourages people to take their memories and their lives into their own hands. On the contrary, romanticization could also lead to jealousy. Putting influencers, celebrities, or even one's friends could negatively impact, which is why it is most important to romanticize your own life rather than others. Music has always had a positive impact on me. Having countless random playlists have allowed me to look at past moments in my life that I did not remember. Every year I create a master log to add every single song I have listened to so I could look back on it in the future and see what events have led me into the next year. I rarely ever delete songs from that playlist for it to be fully authentic. Having songs consistently play throughout my life allowed my imagination of being in a movie to come true. With one click of a button, I can be transformed to my most favourite places; New York, San Francisco, and Seattle, and forget that I am currently sleeping on my dining room floor to avoid the dreadful B.C. heatwave (please send air conditioning). Creating different playlists for different moods can elevate daily activities, whether just running to get groceries or walking on campus to get to class. In the playlist below, I have attached all my favourite “main character” tunes in hopes that you, too, will feel like the main character in your story! There are some songs for beach walks, walking around school, studying, grocery shopping, coffee drinking, and whatever else you can imagine. Happy story-making, and may you all live happily ever after.