By: Elizabeth

I admit it.

I am obsessed.

I profess it longly and loudly to anyone who will hear me, or anyone that happens to be in the room. My family and friends know it, my poor roommate learned it the first week of college, and my friends know that if I listen to "Dear God" more than three times in one day, not to come anywhere near me, for I am in one of my famous foul moods. I adore Sarah McLachlan. I have since I heard a little ditty called "Building A Mystery". I left my radio on 24/7 just so I could hear it again. Normally, I don't freak out about the release of a CD, but a few days after I heard the song, I ran to the nearest store and picked up "Surfacing". The poor CD case is held together today by scratches and tape and the color of the CD is fading, as I've played it so much. I can sing it forwards, backwards, and always find a song to fit my mood. I thought that "Surfacing" had had an impact on me, but I was in for a rather large surprise: "Fumbling Towards Ecstacy". I heard "Possession" randomly one night and was hooked all over again, begging my mother to take me to the mall so I could get it right away. I still remember returning home, Sam Goody bag in hand, and bounding up my stairs to put it in my CD. I sat against the end of my bed and was mesmerized for the sixty minutes Sarah sang to me. Never had an artist had such an impact with her words, and I sat, dumbfounded. My mother had always said that you find a soundtrack to your life, and I had found mine, "Fumbling". Needless to say, "Fumbling" is in worse shape than "Surfacing"...I'm almost certain the poor CD is going to snap in half one of these days. When I started college, I listened to a lot of Sarah, as she comforted me, remained that constant, in my rapidly changing world. I still listen to one of her CDs at least once a week, just sitting at my computer doing international affairs or French, or just talking to friends. Today, I sit here writing my memoirs for my english class. Stuck with an immense case of writer's block, I popped in my ever faithful companion, "Fumbling" and put it on random. I tell you what, computers *are* actually smarter than we are; mine jumped to "Elsewhere". For the first time, I really understood what Sarah was talking about, and I found my themesong. I was inspired all over again by her music, and have started to rewrite my suffering prologue. As a sometimes writer, I rely on my muses for inspiration. I have two who sit on the edge of my desk and mock me, but now I think I can consider Sarah one of my muses, and am more than happy to do so.

Elizabeth K.