Mary Coustas

You're 14.

You're going to school.

You've got your Walkman on.

You've got clean batteries, so you know it's going to get you all the way to school and back.

You've just put a cassette into the Walkman.

And then this song comes on.

Not as teary as yours.

Still.

Good tune.

So that was The Smiths, There Is A Light That Never Goes Out.

And Damien Jones, who was in The Year Above Me, was my boyfriend.

And we'd just started to date and he made me a mixtape, which to me now, that's worth a diamond ring.

If somebody makes you a mixtape, oh my gosh, I do miss that about our Gen X days.

Yep.

And the great thing about him, apart from his chiseled looks and that he was a skater and a surfer and he did art and he's very moody and is still very handsome now.

He had an older sister who I'm still friends with.

So I'm just probably just turned 14.

I'm in the world of Bananarama, McCasley, Madonna, Wham, all amazing and music I would still listen to now.

But when I heard that song, and I suppose it's like that coming of age moment where I'm falling in love for the first time.

I'm growing up, like, you know, the whole world is out there and music takes you to those places.