I often find myself listening to Simon and Garfunkel when I enter a new chapter of my life, to feel almost as if I were in a movie. Bookends is full of songs, like America, Old Friends, and Bookends Theme, that have a cinematic aspect to them that transports me to a space in my head where I begin to think about the things that led me to where I am. Particularly, I remember hearing America while driving on the Mackinac Bridge to get to NMU for the first time, thinking about how I would be entering a new stage of my life. Whether that was a good or bad decision, I have yet to find out, but either way, Bookends had an influence on my memories of the time.

This album feels very much like being on the precipice of moving out into the world and discovering yourself for the first time. There’s a sensation of being a small part of a big, scary world, yet having a hopeful outlook on things getting better as time passes by.