20s Songs

Hello from 30-year old Vania here hahahaha. 

Before August 8, I planned to make a playlist of songs I listened to throughout my 20s. However, I was overwhelmed with Japan trip preparation and post-trip blues lol. I just finished compiling the songs yesterday, so here they are. 

I picked two songs for each year in my 20s. I will list them in chronological order – my age, I mean, not necessarily the songs' release time. 


20 (2014)


I was still into Owl City and this was the last song of his that got me hooked. My memory about this song is that I listened to it when I was doing my assignment in Perpusat. It was raining and I listened to this.


A Taylor Swift basic 😂 I imagined life in 22 would be that fun and bittersweet. I think I sang this on a karaoke session.


21 (2015)


This song is very meaningful to me. I listened to it a lot during the days I studied hard for TOEFL test with the aim of submitting it for student exchange application. I studied after or between classes in Perpus FE. I managed to get a good score, but I did not proceed with the student exchange application due to financial constraint. At the end of the year, I got an opportunity to have a cultural short program in South Korea, and I thought it was the best option for me at that time.


Still in the same occassion as the above lol, but I listened to this the most on the train to light up my mood after studying hard hahaha.


22 (2016)


This song I played the most in my last semester in university. It has some bittersweet memories to it, like I was enjoying the last drip of receiving good education in the best education institution in Indonesia and its facilities, yet I did not want it to end, or in other words, I was not that ready to face the real world :") where it has no tracks as in the last 16 years of education before, and I had to navigate myself, finding something to anchor. Idk, right now, suddenly I remembered I played this song on KSE UI trip to Bandung to visit KSE Unpad and ITB haha.


Huwaaaa this song had bad memories in it because it was played a lot on Prambors when I was looking for jobs :( to commemorate my unemployment era, I had to make it to the list :")

– ADDITIONAL –

Because two songs are not enough to encapsulate memories in the most turbulent year of my life, here's another song.


Haha this was the anthem of the one and only Jombes trip in early 2016 to celebrate Arju and Ninin's graduation, as well as Widha and Rainer (and Fatih who was absent)'s departure for the student exchange in Japan. We sang this song a lot in the car, and I remembered Arju's thunderous laugh singing this 😂


23 (2017)


Ah, finally the beginning of my Cigarettes After Sex era... I first time listened to them in a free music website (sorry I forgot the name), and I listened to K. Kinda like it, but not that hooked. The moment I was hooked by the band was when I watched The Handmaid's Tale S01E05 ( I REMEMBER IT WELL!). The scene was a parallel between June and Luke in Gilead and Canada, respectively. June was reading Luke's letter which saying he's gonna come and save her and Hannah. Then the song played. Aaahhhhh 😭 after watching that episode, I looked into who was singing the song, and listened more to their songs, which just clicked something in me. Since then, I have been religiously listening to them.


I listened to this when I was waiting for 5A bus to go home to Cikini Station on the first weeks after I landed my dream job aka the current job. Landing this job was not a walk on a hill, I had to work on a new field, which turned out I was not suitable for it. But then I had plenty of time to pursue this career, and finally made it. The lyrics were these:

Musim hujan telah usai
Mengucapkan perpisahan
Hari baru tlah dimulai terang
Warna-warni selamat datang

It portrays my jobseeking journey lol. Musim hujan was my desperate days of job hunting, rejection, being ghosted, and hari baru is the day when I received the phone call, telling me that I got the job. 🥲

Rahasia penantian
Satu tahap kehidupan
Aku dan kau merindukan terang
Warna-warni selamat datang


24 (2018)


2018 WOULD NOT BE COMPLETE WITHOUT IZ*ONE AND PRODUCE48 😭😭
Produce48 was the first Produce installment that I watch, and I was hooked, and I was heavily invested 😍. I had been seeing their growth since the first episode (audition or class assignment), and seeing the 12 made it to the final was 🥹🥹
In addition, this song was released not long after the first Japan trip, so I listened to this when I was still recovering from the post-Japan trip blues 🥺 happy memories.


Ahahaha I listened to this a lot because Prambors (Desta Gina in the Morning lol) played it frequently. And at that time, I had a crush on a guy riding the same bus route as me to the office. Hehe. I do like me better when I'm with you 😋 although I no longer see him anymore, and the bus route was terminated, whenever I listened to this, I remember the nice feeling I had when he was around. That was cute.


25 (2019)


AKH I almost cried listening to this on the train 🥲
It was like a few days after my second trip to Japan to celebrate my 25th birthday. I was still in post-Japan blues, and when this song played, feelings and memories blasted inside. 


I listened to this when I took a bath at Melia Hotel in Jogja. I was on a holiday with Lula and Gita in December 2019, and it was our last trip together as singles 😂. As I was in a bath, whenever I listened to this, it brings back the warmth I felt inside and outside. Another nice feeling and memory.


26 (2020)


Memories of falling in love with someone I least expected. Though it did not end good, I want to embrace the good feeling I felt in the beginning, and he made me who I am today, so this song is worth to be listed.


QUARANTINE SONG! *mixing dalgona*


27 - 2021


Oh this song was hyped on Instagram when I caught COVID-19 🤡 and I like the song, actually. It just, this song brings back the sensation of being anosmia 😂 and the heat I had when I sunbathed every morning as per Mamah's instruction lol, and bland food lol. 


For unknown reason, I listened to Dewa and Dewa19 religiously by the end of the year. I even dreamt of meeting Once Mekel 😭 and he taught me how to play bass LOLOLOLOL while IRL he's the vocalist 🤣


28 (2022)


This song was in mid-2022 heartbreak playlist 🤡


This is a soundtrack of a Netflix series under the same name. The series was just beautiful 😭 shots are pretty, actors are good, and pieces of the series in this video was just... perfect 😭 I cried a bit when I searched for this video and watched it for it is so beautifully captured.


29 (2023)


Starting off 2023 by watching Cigarettes After Sex concert live 🥹 this song was PECAH as it has a surprise element in the live performance.

Ooh, when you're all alone,
I will reach for you.
When you're feeling low,
I will be there too.


I first discovered Reality Club from Spotify radio. I forget whose radio, but I like Alexandra song, and I thought it was a song of a foreign band/singer. Then I came across Anything You Want, and I liked it. When I opened Reality Club's page on Spotify, I found Alexandra, then I just realised it was sung by an Indonesian. Wow. When I listened to Alexandra without knowing who sang that, I imagined the singer was like this:


HAHAHAHA WHILE FAIZ NOVASCOTIA, the actual vocalist, is a cutie pie


So that's it! The combination may seem confusing, but they were with me :)

Happy birthday, myself. Let's make many more memories through songs and music! See you 10 years from now when I turn... 40 😂 

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