Yap Session: Why I Can Turn One Song Into a Whole Essay

How can someone have so much to say about something?

Well.. because when I like something, I become incapable of being normal about it lol! I’m literally Jack Skellington in The Nightmare Before Christmas.. the second I find something I like, I become unhealthily obsessed with it!

But honestly, I think it comes from this really deep desire to understand things.

For example, when I discover a song I like, I can’t just stop at the song itself.. I’ll look up what album it’s from, and once I know the album, I have to listen to the whole thing. In order. No skips. No shuffling. I just sit there and listen from beginning to end. The artist arranged the tracks that way for a reason, and I want to experience it the way they intended it.

I’m not saying I can’t casually listen to one song on its own–I do! Only after I listen to the album in order first. Well.. actually, when I’m listening to an album, it has to be in order every single time lol! Which is probably why my top Spotify song in 2022, and maybe even 2023, was Lavender Haze by Taylor Swift. It’s the first track on Midnights and the 3am Edition, and I used to loop the album constantly while doing plates. Sometimes I’d pause halfway through and switch to another album, but even then, I’d still listen to the next album in order too lol!

And after listening, I always want to know more. What’s the story behind the album? What emotions created it? What inspired it? Maybe it’s because Taylor Swift raised me? lol

Of course, I still form my own interpretations. I love connecting songs and albums to my own experiences. But at the same time, I still want to understand the artist’s perspective too. I’m such a “why” person. My brain literally cannot rest until I know why things are the way they are. I need to know the reason, or else it’ll keep looping around in my head forever.. 

So then I fall into the rabbit hole.. I’ll watch interviews, read articles, and eventually become curious about the artist as a whole. What’s their discography like? How did they come up with this?

I think part of it comes from respect. I admire people and their craft, so I guess learning about their work feels like I’m appreciating it properly.

That’s probably also why I love musicals so much. More often than not, every tiny detail means something–the staging, the lighting, the choreography, the lyrics, even the way a line is delivered. And I love that feeling of suddenly realizing something and going, “Oh my god, that’s why they did that!” It excites me!

So really, all of this is just to say: I love learning.

That’s why I can yap endlessly about songs, movies, performances, or literally anything that interests me! That’s also how this website keeps getting filled with yap session blogs lmao.

I just genuinely love learning from people. Whenever someone knows something I don’t, or can do something I can’t, my first instinct is always to ask questions.

Random tangent, but I remember back in Grade 7 or 8, I had a classmate who used to knit during class. I thought it was the coolest thing ever! After class one day, I walked over to her desk and said something like, “You’re so good at that! I’ve always wanted to learn.. Would you maybe be okay to teach me how to start?” It doesn’t matter whether I know the person or not.. I won’t even think twice about asking. My future kids are definitely going to be embarrassed of me haha! 

My boyfriend is also such a fun fact person–maybe even more than I am! He’ll randomly tell me things he learned, and honestly, half the time I already know what he’s talking about. But I still let him tell me anyway because it’s nice to learn. To relearn things. To remember information you once knew. And honestly, I just love seeing him get excited about his fun facts! I find it really endearing that he wants to share them with me. 

I think that’s one of the reasons I love where we are–we’re constantly learning from each other. Things I’m not good at, he’s good at. Things he doesn’t know much about, I end up introducing to him. I know some of my neurotic tendencies have influenced him too lol. I literally pushed that man into making a Goodreads and Letterboxd account (maybe that’s why I’m the only one he follows there?) haha! But I think it’s cute that we get to share little worlds and interests like that. 

But yeah, I’m naturally curious. I love learning, I love gaining new skills, and I love stimulating my brain.

At the same time though.. I am very neurotic about it. I have systems for everything. I’m very Type A in almost all aspects of my life. I’m one of those people the internet loves to egg on: people who, the second they get home from traveling, immediately unpack. Doesn’t matter what time it is–the moment I get home, everything goes back to its designated place. Even my purse gets emptied, and the bag goes right back to the purse closet.

And I’m the same way with learning.

I find a system that works for me, I stick to it. In school, I loved rewriting my notes, color-coding everything, and organizing things in a very specific way. I don’t have a photographic memory in its entirety, but I remember information visually. During exams, I’d literally think, “Wait, I remember writing this on the left side of the page with a green underline underneath it,” and somehow that would help me remember the answer lol.

Even as a kid, I treated learning like a tradition.. Every Christmas break, I’d make myself learn a new skill or hobby, and by the end of the break, I wanted to create at least one finished piece from it. I stopped doing that around my first year of college because university became overwhelming and stressful, but I still learn in different ways now–just in a more serious adult way, I guess..

And despite how stressful university can be, I do love it. I’ve had professors who challenged the way I think, pushed me to explore new concepts, gave me confidence to try new things/techniques, and taught me things that went beyond the subject they’re teaching. I know that’s technically their job, but some of them do it really well. I’m thankful for them–they make college a little less intimidating. They’re good people.

But I guess, in some ways, this constant need to know and understand could also become my demise..

But yeah! If this blog feels overly detailed, dramatic, or a little neurotic.. it’s because that’s genuinely who I am. I love things deeply. I think deeply. I ask too many questions. I (over)analyze everything.

And maybe that’s why I always have so much to say.

I really do write like I’m running out of time.. (iykyk)

D.