Country music was my first love

The first CD I ever bought with my own money was UP! by Shania Twain. I was 10 years old and my cunning self at the time "bought it for my mom", disguised as a birthday present for her. But in reality, I bought it for myself. It isn't that my mom didn't enjoy listening to Shania, but I knew that I was going to be listening to it WAY more.

And listened to it I did. We had this microphone that I could plug into the CD player and when I sung into it, my voice would come out of the speakers. So on the weekends, I am pretty sure I just put the CD on, plugged in the microphone and sang along with Shania all weekend long. I might have taken a break on Sunday afternoons because that was when the top 40 country music countdown was on TV. And there were MUSIC VIDEOS!!

I think that I feel in love with country music because it made me feel a lot of different emotions. After all, what is love but a ton of emotions? As a child, I may not have necessarily understood everything that the songs were trying to convey but never the less, I understood enough to appreciate them. I felt the heartbreaks, the joys, the struggles, the hope, and many, many other things.

So here are some of the songs that made up a huge part of my childhood. I would not call this my top 10 list by any means because I loved a lot of songs equally.

To start off, it will of course be UP! by Shania Twain. This song is extremely upbeat and uplifting. It was perfect for listening in all occasions, but especially if I was in a bad mood, and we all know that happens very often as a child. Even listening to it now as I am writing this is making me smile uncontrollably.

The next one is Live Like You Were Dying by Tim McGraw. I will not give the sole credit to this song for the way I am living my life today but it definitely deserves some credit as it planted the seed in my mind at such a young age. I think that "live like you were dying" is really the only way to live without regrets. Even if you don't end up doing everything you dreamt of, at least you knew you did everything you could. Whereas if you had left everything to do for that magical "tomorrow", that is where I can see the regrets appearing.

Okay, time for a sad one, warning, it might make you cry. Whiskey Lullaby by Brad Paisley. Oof, it definitely made me cry as a kid, and I am definitely NOT crying right now :'(. But, don't worry, the music video definitely gave it a happy ending.

Enough crying... for now. I mean you can't say that you love country music without loving the sad ones to cry to. After all, they don't call it "cry in your beer" music for nothing. I loved this one as a child because it brought out a very hopefully feeling, Something More by Sugarland. Of course, as a child, I didn't have the same struggles as described in this song, but I understood the meaning behind it. My favorite line in it is "happiness is something we create" and it is so true.

Another hopeful and feel good song is This One's For The Girls by Martina McBride. This song is really timeless. It spoke to me when it first came out because I was a girl around thirteen at the time. And as I got older, it was still so relatable.

On the theme of girls, the next one is a super fun one, Girls Lie Too by Terri Clark. It is funny listening to it as an adult, when she sings, "size don't matter anyway", I recognize that she is probably not talking about the men's beer belly that I thought she was referring to as a child.

Next up is It's Five O'Clock Somewhere by Alan Jackson. I loved this song as a kid just because it was so fun. But I can appreciate it a lot more now as an adult now that I know that a hurricane is a drink and not a weather phenomenon.

Now time for another crying song, What Hurts The Most by Rascal Flatts. The song itself is not that sad but with the music video, the tears just keep on falling.

That was the last sad one, I promise. This next one, I only remembered as a happy and funny song to listen to. However, I can now appreciate the more serious side to it. Goodbye Earl by The Chicks. I even used this song in a high school project when I had to do a presentation in a family studies class on domestic abuse represented in the media.

Finally to end this off, here is a classic by the Zac Brown Band, Chicken Fried. I loved dancing to it as a kid and I still love dancing to it right now.

I hope that you enjoyed these songs as much as I did (and still do). The country music scene has definitely evolved since my childhood but I still love it as much as ever. My current playlist may be totally different from this list, but these songs will always have a very, very special place in my heart and in my soul.