Recently, I went to a concert of one of my favorite bands in which each song captured me with a wave of nostalgia. I started listening to this band three or four years ago at a time in my life when breaking up with my boyfriend was the end of the world and when the ACT was all anyone could talk about.

As I was tapping my feet, rolling my shoulders, and screaming with the other 10,000 fans to the beat of these songs, I suddenly wasn’t in Colorado at the concert anymore. Instead, I was in my ’89 Volvo Station Wagon, my high school car responsible for countless laughs and experiences, driving home from downtown in the Spring of Junior year.

But, I wasn’t just there. Another song played and I was suddenly at the beginning of this summer hanging out with all of my friends catching up about our school years at our favorite park.

One more song played, and I was taken back to the countless dance parties with my roommates where the bass was shaking the walls and we were flying around the room in dancing hysteria only to wind up giggling on the floor trying to catch our breath.

Memories don’t just flood when I listen to this band. It happens when I hear a song on the radio I haven’t heard since middle school. It happens when a favorite hymn is played in church. It happens when the Veggie Tales theme song comes on or when my friends and I intentionally search for High School Musical and Hannah Montana songs on Spotify.

I’m no music expert — in fact, I am the least musically educated person you may ever meet (what even is a tenor?), so I’m sure there are reasonable explanations as to why music triggers certain memories but I just don’t know them. I find it fascinating, however, the kind of impact music has on our lives. It has the power to transport us back to a vivid experience or remind us of the painful feelings we were experiencing when we listened to that song or of the times of joy in which we screamed at the top of our lungs out the car window the lyrics we had no idea meant.

Music is powerful in how it captures our mind in a way that few little things can.