One Song

When asked which song by One Direction is my favourite, I couldn't make a decision. Because there's no one song. Whenever I try naming one of them as better than the others, all I feel is a plunging stone in my stomach pulling me to reconsider. Because there's no one song. The first time I heard a song by One Direction, it was the time when songs needed to be downloaded on computers and transferred to phones. And I remember getting my first personal phone, a no-internet one, and scrambling to download their songs and those videos. I remember listening to Night Changes on every valentine's day as it slowly became a tradition. I remember looking at the same downloaded videos of Story of my life and What makes you beautiful on loop, sitting in the backseat of the car while on a road trip. I remember sitting in the park with One Direction playing through my earphones on a loop, making me feel stronger and more loved with each passing second. I remember listening to them not just because I wanted to, but because I needed to.

Because One Direction wasn't just a band. They didn't just give us songs. Their words gave us something to hold on to, something to hold a little closer to our hearts. They gave us something that could be embedded into our skins.They made us feel things that were human, even when we didn't feel like one. They gave us something that is very hard to find in a world so cruel. They gave us the thing beyond mere perfection. Because it was never just one song.