That Song

During the summer before my sophmore year, this song became very popular, although I just recently discovered it. I had just received my drivers license within the week. Four of us guys decided to go over to Woodbury, because according to one of them, that’s where all the ladies were. We headed on out laughing, having fun, and cracking jokes because at that moment we didn’t have a care in the world, which is in essence the meaning of the song. We got to the mall area and walked around a bit. Not only was there no girls, there was hardly anyone at all. I guess nobody likes to go to the mall on Tuesday mornings. So naturally we are all mad at the kid who suggested it, although we were mostly kidding. We spent about two hours there just messing around and making everything into a joke like we had a tendency to do. I heard that song in many of the stores and in the walkway multiple times as they overplay new music all the time. On the way home we were driving listening to the same song. Being a young driver in a car with friends and dancing and singing to the music isn’t the ideal situation. I started to drift onto the other side of the road with a car coming head on. Luckily my friend in the passanger seat had the awareness to grab the wheel, narrowly avoiding one doozy of an accident. It got deafly quiet, which was followed my uncontrolable laughter for somereason. I remember everything from that one moment, the perfect example of a flashbulb memory. When I came back to that mall later, because of state dependent learning, I remembered some other things we did that I forgot. The reason I took to the song was because I had an emotional connection to it; we all were care free and having a good time. When I hear this song I get in a good mood and it reminds me of this whole day, also know as mood congruent. I can sing along with the whole thing because of my conscious recall. This extended period has been consolidated into my long term memory.