I don’t claim to know what’s the “coolest” music out there. (In fact, sometimes the trendiest stuff doesn’t really fit my taste.) But music has played a huge role in my life, from listening it to playing it. The right song can make you happy, make you sad, make you fall in love. So in the coming weeks, I plan to share some of the songs that have really touched me, in one way or another. Starting with…

When I was a freshman in high school, I experienced my first bout of depression. It went on for months before I had the courage to talk to my mom about it. In that time, I made a mix CD (remember those?) of all the songs I thought had the power to inspire me out of my depression.

I’m not prescribing music as a treatment for anyone’s mental health issues, but I will say, to an extent, it helped a lot. This particular song, U2’s “Stuck in a Moment You Can’t Get Out Of,” was one of my favorites on the “album.” I loved the concept of simply being stuck, needing a little push to get out of what was simply a moment. As a teenager dealing with an onslaught of loneliness, hopelessness, and sadness, I was also overwhelmed and scared, wondering when those feelings would finally wash away. This song simplified it for me. It was a moment, and I needed to get unstuck. When I finally got help and starting feeling more myself, “unstuck” really seemed applicable to how I felt.