“God you really need to take those off” my friend sighs, eyeing me down with a great sense of disappointment after a third “huh” escapes my lips, indicating that maybe the third time wasn’t the charm. I stare back like a deer in the headlights as always. Her words had once again been lost within the music playing in my headphones.

For two years, my headphones have found themselves inseparable from me. Or maybe I’ve found myself inseparable from them. Plugged into an iPod as I walk down the Coppell High School hallways, tucked away in the corner of a locker room, or on my bed late at night, my headphones have always found themselves right at home blasting bass lines into my ears.

Bass has always been the one thing coursing in my head. Bass led me to my current headphones, a pair of Crusher Evos which boast boosted bass so intense it will damage your hearing. It led me to artists such as Megan Thee Stallion, Laufey to Hatsune Miku. Eventually, I noticed that my love for loud bass is stemmed from the feeling of calm that bass triggers within me.

The low strums of bass coursing through my head serve a purpose much greater than a state of relaxation: they serve as a way to let me escape into a different world. A world where it’s just me and my own thoughts.

Even someone like me, an extrovert in every sense, needs a mental space where I can just sort out my thoughts. Having time to disassociate serves as my main method of emotional regulation, giving me space to cool off and think about the events of my day with a clear mind.

Whenever I find myself close to an emotional or mental meltdown, I simply pop my headphones on to first calm myself down with the soothing effect of bass and use my inability to hear or be approached by anyone as a way to escape into my thoughts and sort myself out.

So I dedicate my thanks towards my banged up bass baddies, my magic tool which transports me to my own little world when I need it the most.

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