Jimmy Eat World - The Middle
your first holidays on your own. Three weeks, going to a language school in Bournemouth, living in a hostel with all the other students. At home, this boy has broken your heart so you’re glad to get away from everyone for some time. Your hostel room is small but you have a windowsill to sit on and you listen to the seagulls all day and watch the people in the street and write postcards on the beach, and sometimes at night you cry a little while eating grapes and Quavers. You're only 17 and suddenly the world feels so huge and free and you're not sure if you're ready for this. But Jimmy Eat World tells you that everything will be just fine, and you know that it will.
Coldplay - Magic
a year later. The impossible has just happened, you and your friends have passed the final exams with decent marks and that means, no school ever again! It feels like a weird dream. What happens after school? You can't just stop being a student? So you float around aimlessly, drinking a little grapefruit beer here and a little vodka-o there, and sitting in the grass might not be the best idea if you're allergic to pollen, but you can’t resist being next to her. She takes you to every city in Germany with her captivating green eyes and dances with you in her blue dress the night of the prom. You get a little sentimental about not seeing everyone again but in this moment, you're still together and you swear you'll stay in touch.
Alle Farben - She Moves
you can do anything you want now, since you're 18 and finished school, right? So that's what you do. You pack your bags for an Interrail trip across Europe, you want to go to every party in Amsterdam and hold hands with random strangers in Paris while eating cheese and go skinny dipping in the South of France and sing karaoke in Barcelona and live the luxurious life in Vienna. On your second day, you kind of fall in love with an American and let him convince you to come to Madrid. So you meet him again and you eat lots of grapes and fried eggs and he always makes sure you eat enough and he introduces you to classical dancing and buys you strawberry daiquiri and chocolate Churros and he makes a joke out of jumping on the elevator because he knows about your claustrophobia but he still rides it with you every time and he accepts you the way you are. You stay for longer than you'd intended to, but eventually you're alone again in a run-down 2 star hotel by the station in Genova, and you get lost and you're scared of the dark.
Lost Frequencies - Reality
another summer has passed. You haven't noticed because you've had too much alcohol in the meantime, but at least she's still with you. Her hands feel like a home you don't want to leave. But you know you have to. And you're both scared of the future and of your lives and if you could, you'd just stay in that shisha bar forever, or in this night where you were dancing until 5 in the morning with your eyes closed and when you eventually opened them, you were the only people in the club. But nothing is forever, and soon all of this might just be memories of a past life. So you spend the nights at her house, and in the morning you ride your bike back to your parents' over the fields in the summer heat, and you listen to this song and sing along, "Today I got a million, tomorrow I don't know."
Ashley Hicklin - City Lights
the first melancholy of leaving home but finding a partner in a foreign place. A little hint of being loved turns into a relationship because you're both a bit lost. Falling asleep with different sounds at night, walking different streets every day. University hasn't started yet and everything makes you cry. You're not homesick because you've stopped feeling anything at all. A dreamy state of going home for the weekend and coming back to your lover on Sunday evening and not knowing where to expect peace. It's weird to have a daily routine in a place where you didn't grow up.
Jetta - Feels Like Coming Home
it's December and you're still with him. He makes you feel less lonely, you eat takeaway pizza with him at night and study together and get to know each other's bodies and walk through the darkness of the city that doesn't even seem that terrifying anymore. He puts on a playlist of English lullabies on YouTube when you can't sleep and the Top 100 Charts of Germany when you want to dance and he lets you write poetry while he makes Asian noodle soup and when he plays League Of Legends next to you in the bed, he gets angry when you accidentally touch the mouse.
Coucheron - Deep End
it ends, like everything does. You are the one to end it, after trying to fix it with some new red lipstick and a nice dress and lots of patience but he just didn't love you anymore. So you sit in your geography lecture and you text him "Can we meet later? We need to talk" and you're so nervous but then you just say it - and it's over, just like that. On the pavement between building 1 and 2, the decision is made and can't be reversed. You only cry for a second until you realise there is nothing to cry about. It was the right thing to do, the only choice you had. When you come home, the flat feels empty and big. Like something is missing. You tell your flatmate about it and she almost cries and wants to know why. "It's okay", you laugh. But you both know that your laugh is fake.
Joe Brooks - Wildflowers
four weeks after the heartbreak. You're finally getting to know this city without him. You drive to the lake and dance on your own and let strangers touch you and when you cry at night, you call your best friend and he talks to you until you fall asleep. You write the lyrics on a piece of paper, "You belong somewhere you feel free", but you never hang it up in your room because there's no space on the walls.
Charming Horses - Higher Love
your best friend visits you just to make sure you're alright. He lives 300 miles away from you, and you don't see each other often. You're happy that he came, and you show him all the famous sights in the city and, of course, the best club. You dance until the morning, you accidentally fall asleep in his arms, and when you wake up, his lips are touching yours.
Jamie Lawson - Wasn't Expecting That
the next day, it happens again. He has a girlfriend, you didn't mean for this to happen. You talk a lot, and you agree that time will sort it out. "Let's just be friends, isn't that better?" you say. And the next second, after kissing him, you say, "It's a pity we're just friends. Your kisses feel so good."
Lighthouse Family - (I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be) Free
Portugal with your boyfriend. You made it, the fate seems to be on your side for once: the two of you have been together for seven months now. This is your first holiday together. You rented a little bungalow directly by the sea and you spend all your days relaxing on the beach. You read a lot and when you cry because the book is sad, he takes you in his arms. You paint a lot and even though you paint like a 5-year-old child, he loves it and encourages you to carry on. You've picked up your passion for filming and photography again, and he is your model. Every morning, you make a breakfast out of the few things you've got in the fridge. Every night, you drink cocktails at a little bar you've discovered. Then you watch the sunset. And when you return to the bungalow, euphoric and drunk, you jump and dance on the king size bed until you fall asleep on his chest.
The Chainsmokers - All We Know
it's a long distance relationship, so most days don't look like your week in Portugal. You slip into the usual supermarket and uni routine again, not doing much apart from that; the long walk home, the music TV with its same three songs every day to kill the silence. Occasional pasta, but if you're too lazy to make it, crisps will do. From the outside it looks like a regular student's life. Minus the parties and the friends, which just makes it pretty pathetic.
Avicii - What Would I Change It To
you're on the airplane. You were so scared of going abroad for a whole semester, but suddenly you get the feeling that maybe this isn't going to be so bad! You already miss your parents and your boyfriend - but you've always liked to be away from humanity for a little while. You turn the music up louder and think to yourself, "Why would I replace the sky? Why would I recreate that perfect blue?"
Architecture in Helsinki - Escapee
the grass is wet and your socks are, too, but you learned that's nothing unusual here. This is the soundtrack for long morning walks through Tesco. You've finally got a bunch of friends, and there's more parties than you could ever go to. You're in your room, drinking tea (this is Britain!) and working on your assignment when suddenly, a song on Spotify reminds you of your very first holidays in Britain. Not the very first ones, because you were only 11 months old then. You think of that time when you were in Bournemouth. And you realise that it's still true: Everything will be just fine.
