I was struggling with some pretty severe depression when I met him, in the fall two years ago. I hated being lonely all the time, with parents who mostly only cared about what grades I was getting and how my AP Chemistry test went - which weren’t often great. I often turned to music to get me out of my life, whether it was playing Beethoven on the piano or listening to my Spotify playlist. But was the soothing yet nostalgic feeling Coldplay’s “Amazing Day” gave me when I first heard it, that immediately made me feel better. The sound wasn’t particularly unusual- a swaying beat with an inspiring, joyful angle, which instantly could lift my spirits. But it was the lyrics that were so extremely relatable, “can there be breaks in the chaos sometimes?” and yet wishful. I was thoroughly obsessed with it and the sweet-yet-not-sugary ideals it presented, of a seemingly impossible-to-achieve perfect relationship, where they sit on roofs and gaze at stars and the world is right. The kind of relationship where it’s not just two individuals, but two halves of a soul.

It’s quite literally just coincidence that I met him at the same time. He was really annoying- used to steal my things in class and put them in high places that I, being a mere five feet tall- couldn’t reach. But we got to know each other over time through Japanese class and our mutual friends, and by the time winter ended we were talking for hours into the night every day. I ranted about my troubling home life to him all the time, and he’d listen and distract me from it with funny anecdotes and songs and random facts I would’ve never known. When we started hanging out, it was unbelievable how comfortable we were with each other. It was like we entirely skipped the awkward phase that often exists between two people when they meet and get to know each other. We’d sit in various parks and just talk and goof off for hours. And when I went home, I’d obsessively play “Amazing Day” on repeat because it was the only song that, to me, could replicate those same feelings when I was alone, perfectly the slight sadness of having to leave but also bringing back tangible echoes of the happiness we had..

Chris Martin’s voice crooning “the whole milky way...drifting away” was exactly the way I felt every time I listened to the twinges of guitar and soft background strings, with the iconic swaying drums keeping the momentum going, and exactly how I felt when we spent time together. It was incredible how even the lyrics of the song grew to exactly fit our budding relationship. “We sat on a roof”- well, it was grass, but still- “named every star, shared every bruise and showed every scar”- he was the only person I could really talk to about how upset life at home made me, with the stress of many AP classes and pressure from my parents eating away at me. We both reflected on all the things that had happened to us, and realized it didn’t matter because when we were with each other, we were happy- “hope put its proof, put your hand in mine...forget the world and its weight”. When we hung out, even though we weren’t doing anything exciting, anything bothering me just kind of went away. I was always just unapologetically myself, exuding personality and feelings in a way I wasn’t able to at home or at school as a result of stress, “[he] showed me a place where [I] could be who [I was]”. Every second spent with him was exactly “[a} break in the chaos” every single time, and even after years the song is still as uplifting.