Melancholy

I like melancholy things. 

Did someone say melon collie?

Yeah, no. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking black and white photos, staring longingly off into the distance, silhouettes, and poetry. I'm talking "a feeling of pensive sadness, typically with no obvious cause." 

Meredith being melancholy doesn't really mean Meredith is sad. Because I really like the pensive part of melancholy. And the "no obvious cause" part is pretty nice too. Because being sad with an obvious cause is really not fun.

People who are unfortunate enough to be familiar with me know that generally I'm a pretty happy person. I've chilled out a lot over the last year or so, but I'm definitely not a big fan of being bummed out. But sometimes I just like to sit in my room, play music, and be melancholy. Melancholy is a dependable sort of emotion. Happiness can be fleeting, obnoxious, and tiring. Anger is exhausting and unpleasant for all parties affected by it. 

But melancholy just stays with you, a sort of bittersweet comfort. It's nice to be melancholy sometimes because you get to just sit quietly and think about things. It's sort of like that feeling right before you hug someone.

I like to listen to music when I'm melancholy, like this...

Also frequently appearing on my "Melon Collie" playlist are Christina Perri ("Jar of Hearts" will always do it for me), Passenger ("Let Her Go"), Ed Sheeran ("This"), or my personal favorite (although it only works for me if I play it myself) - Chopin.

Or sometimes I just peruse photos, quotes, or poetry that bring out my melancholy tendencies.
Here are a few.

And after just a few minutes of pondering all the big things in my life like college and jobs and careers, I forget about little-big things like economics projects and algebra tests. And somehow, the bigger things seem easier to think about than those little things, because they're in the future, and at least while I'm being melancholy, I don't have to face any of my troubles.
There's a sort of refuge in sadness, you see. Sadly, I don't think that prose is entirely appropriate to really describe something so melancholy as melancholy (especially my prose). Consequently, I must turn you loose to learn about it for yourselves from the poetic masters.
Here's a tiny gem to get you started.

"And so, being young and dipt in folly

I fell in love with melancholy."

-Edgar Allen Poe