It’s starting to dawn on me that after five years of attending DePaul, I’m down to my final few weeks — which is truly frightening and very exciting at the same time, and is leading to a lot of nostalgic reminiscing about the past five years.

Throughout my time at DePaul I’ve transformed from an incredibly awkward and nervous teenager, to a slightly less awkward but severely more nervous adult, and have made memories that will stay with me for the rest of my life. Here are five songs that remind me of each of my five years at DePaul.

1. “Tennessee” — P.S. Eliot

The week I moved into my dorm room in Clifton-Fullerton Hall, P.S. Eliot played a house show somewhere off of one of the last stops of the Pink Line. My new friend that I had met on a DePaul Facebook group traversed the terrifying ‘L’ train with me, and we made it to the show to learn our first lesson of Chicago living: always arrive to a house show about two hours after it’s supposed to start. We sat in some random man’s house for two hours doing homework before anyone else arrived.

2. “Die Young” — Kesha

By the time my sophomore year rolled around, I was sick of all the sadness in my life due to only listening to indie and emo bands, and I really began to embrace pop music. My favorite pop artist of the bunch by far was Kesha.

Not only is Kesha a great artist to listen to in order to escape the depression of the Chicago emo scene, but “Die Young” also captures the spirit of being young that I desperately needed after my dismal freshman year.

3. “On An Evening in Roma” — Dean Martin

I studied abroad in Rome the summer after my junior year, and spent the last half of that year listening to songs about Italy and thinking I was incredibly cultured for listening to something that wasn’t pop punk.

“On An Evening in Roma” not only captures the beauty and romanticized view of Rome that I have held in my heart since my study abroad trip there, but it’s also on the soundtrack to the “Lizzie McGuire Movie” — quite possibly the best film to capture the spirit of Rome since “La Dolce Vita.”

4. “Barenaked” — Jennifer Love Hewitt

My senior year of college I joined the staff of The DePaulia where I met the best friends I made throughout my years at DePaul. Thankfully, these new friends were similar to me, in that they enjoyed listening to and making fun of really bizarre songs, including creepy sexual songs performed by a too-young  Jennifer Love Hewitt.

5. “40 oz. on Repeat” — FIDLAR

I’ve listened to and loved FIDLAR for a few years now, and their release “Too” this past year solidified the massive amount of love I already had for the Los Angeles punk band.

My favorite song off of their latest release is “40 oz. on Repeat,” in which vocalist and guitarist Zac Carper laments  about being alone, being broke and being sad. As a graduate student starting to look for jobs and think about entering the real world, nothing speaks more to my soul than this song.