Growing up sans internet and mostly sans television, I spent a lot of my time listening to music on the radio, which involved a very time-consuming [yet satisfying] hobby of making copious amounts of mix tapes.  Several hours of my childhood were spent on the wooden floor of my bedroom waiting for the perfect song to play on the radio and to press “record” on my 1980’s styled boombox.

These days I no longer have the boombox, nor the time to spend listening to music for hours in my room, but I do still love to create the perfect “mix tape.”

My sister, Natalie, has just graduated [yay!] from Sweet Briar College, which presented a golden opportunity to put together a graduation playlist, complete with uppers, downers, and all the in-between songs that encapsulate the roller coaster of feelings post-grads experience as they leave a familiar home to burst [and sometimes meander] into the “real world.”

A couple tricks of the mix tape trade:
1. Choose music that is meaningful to you and that you’re excited about.  I rarely create mixes with songs that aren’t currently floating around in my head for one reason or another.
2. Have a purpose in mind. It’s easy to put songs together that you like in in one playlist, but way more fun to stick to a theme and find the “perfect” songs.
3. Order matters!
4. Don’t sweat the length.  It may be 8 great songs, or 20.

Natalie’s Graduation Mix
1. Boy – This Is the Beginning
2. Youngblood Hawke – Stars (Hold On)
3. Icona Pop – Ready for the Weekend
4. Ke$ha – All That Matters (The Beautiful Life)
5. Macklemore & Ryan Lewis – Can’t Hold Us (feat. Ray Dalton)
6. Capital Cities – Patience Gets Us Nowhere Fast
7. Taylor Swift – 22
8. Junip – Your Life Your Call
9. Phosphorescent – Ride On, Right On
10. The Horde & The Harem – Chasing Crows
11. John Mark Nelson – Reminisce
12. The Shins – It’s Only Life
13. The Gossip – Heavy Cross
14. Grimes – Oblivion
15. Junip – It’s Alright
16. Youngblood Hawke – We Come Running
17. Beach House – Wishes
18. Two Door Cinema Club – This is the Life

Happy listening!