The B Side of My Life

As I was sitting writing this article today, I was listening to J. Cole — 4 Your Eyez Only on vinyl. Yes, I’m aware of Spotify, and I use it quite often. But listening to the record got me thinking about how a record has an A Side and B Side, and you can’t enjoy the entire record without flipping it over. I know you’re probably confused at this point, but I promise if you read on it will make sense.

Don’t only play the A Side

I’ve recently started reading Option B by Sheryl Sandberg and Adam Grant, and this too inspired the thoughts of this article. Just like a record they are two sides to my life, in my case they are work and personal life. We’ll call work the A Side, and personal the B Side. For the past few years all I’ve been focusing on (or listening to) is the A Side. Trying my hardest to make more money, and get my life on track financially. The problem with this is I haven’t really enjoyed the B Side, and since I got laid off I am definitely starting to turn the record over. I’m learning that if you’re not enjoying all parts of your life it starts to turn into a broken record, you know where it keeps skipping on the same part. Plus the B Side has taught me quite a bit already, like the fact that if I’m taking good care of my B Side great things begin to happen. When both sides of my record (life) are complete, I need to make sure both sides were enjoyed, and played loud and clear.

Enjoy the music

One of the things I like most about vinyl is that you can’t skip through the songs as easily as you would with today’s streaming services. It almost forces you to really listen to each and every song. Enjoying the music is a metaphor for enjoying life. Before coming to this conclusion, I will admit I was skipping a lot of the songs and not listening to what they were telling me. Songs in this case being the moments in life. Especially the ones that count, like spending more time with family and friends, or doing things I enjoyed like writing. I’m still only a few tracks in, but the rest of the record is looking like a billboard chart topper. By learning to flip the record over and enjoying both side, I can truly say I’m learning a lot about myself.

So here’s to the next chapter, or next vinyl in this case. I will make sure that the A Side and B Side are both taken care of, as I want as few bumps and scratches as possible from this point on. I hope you’ll enjoy listening to these tracks (reading my articles) as I release them, and that it helps you enjoy your own record as well.

Until Tomorrow

Brian Almeida