I love music. My life is always accompanied by a soundtrack. If the radio isn’t on my iPod is blasting or songs are just roaming through my head as I make my way through the world. There are some songs I associate with specific experiences, events or locations. With this series, I make an attempt to document some of those associations.

The song: All Fired Up

The artist: Pat Benatar

The location: the small eat-in kitchen of my first apartment after college.

It is a warm, sunny day in May of 1991 at about 10:30 in the morning and I’m waking up over a cup of tea. I’m contemplating what needs to be done before I return to work for my 4 PM to 2 AM shift at the student computer center at Boston College. The phone rings breaking me out of my haze. The nice gentleman on the other end of the phone is calling to inform me that I have won a $5,000 scholarship towards my first semester of graduate school. I am stunned and ecstatic. I ask him three times if he’s serious. Three times he laughs and tells me yes he is serious. He tells me a letter with official notification will be mailed and I promise to forward him the contact information for the Boston University’s Bursar’s Office. We hang up.

I am on cloud nine. I deferred graduate school for a year so I could earn money and apply for scholarships and financial aid. With this exception, the scholarships were few and far between, but I was able to secure a few grants and a work-study position. I was planning to make up the difference in loans. A $5,000 scholarship meant that I wouldn’t need any loans until the second semester. I dance into the living room and find my Pat Benetar Greatest Hits CD. I crank the volume and blast my roommate out of bed. She’s angry until she hears the news, then she’s just sleepy.

All fired up

I believe there comes a time when everything just falls in line.

We live and learn from our mistakes the deepest cuts are healed by faith.

All fired up