How a random song steers me down an existential back road. At the exact time, place, and mood you were in when it came on, the memory was created. It cannot be reversed. Each subsequent time you listen to it, you already have it imprinted, hearing it not solely for what it sounds like now, but for how it did the very first time. An extra layer that only speaks to you.

An invisible barrier that separates you from everyone else, even when you're all hearing it together. There's a lonesome sense about it, that your experience is yours and yours alone. But true freedom is loneliness, to walk the desert of your mind and take stock of your potential. On your terms; in ways only you can understand given the experiences that have dotted your timeline. Where others only see a weathered, just barely-there smile.