There are university-weeks that are an enjoyable and inspiring experience. They are filled with spontaneous meetings in cafés, movie-nights and other events that can be generally summarised as ‘what American college movies make college look like.’ The month of February is lacking those weeks so far. The only movie nights I had in the past days were never-ending web lecture binges and the only thing I am currently doing in cafés is getting another shot of my drug of choice — hot chocolate — to make it through them. I have forced friends and family to listen to my monologues about the endocannabinoid system and why Wilhelm Wundt is the founding father of Psychology. And there are more Blackboard taps open on my laptop than YouTube pages with a variety of cat videos. Yes, I am in my third (and last) week of exams and I develop an increasing urge to start a solo-performance of Les Misérables’ I Dreamed A Dream with every day that is passing.

There are not many things that keep me sane, but one of them is the approaching 90th Academy Awards ceremony. On the 4th of March, no force on this planet can and will hold me from pulling an all-nighter to watch the entire event. I could rant for hours about my personal favourites, but, like every year, there is also a lot of great music up for competition and especially one nominated artist was my personal life-saver through those weeks of studying. We need to talk about Sufjan Stevens, nominated for Mystery of Love from Call Me by Your Name.

It is an open secret that I am head over heels in love with Call Me by Your Name, but I haven’t talked enough about its score and especially not enough about Sufjan Stevens, who contributed three pieces to it. I became addicted to Stevens’ music from the moment I have been introduced to it by a friend. There is not a single of his songs that hasn’t touched me so far. His music is relaxing without being insignificant and present without being intrusive. He brought me through one or two nights of despair about clinical neuropsychology and is definitely one of the artists I mostly listened to over the past weeks. I highly recommend his music, whether you are studying like crazy or celebrating carnival. Everyone can use a little bit of breathing, listening and some relaxation now and then.

Every two weeks, Antonia will add the songs she writes about to the Spotify playlist below. This way, she creates a soundtrack to her time in Nijmegen. Click left and right for more songs.

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