“Slip on the rubber gloves and grab the Hefty bags. It’s time to clean house, Aquarius, as you prepare for your next year of life. Your ‘birth month’ officially begins on Sunday the 19th when the Sun zips into your sign until February 18. Leaving the past in the past is simply a must. If you can’t find it in your heart to forgive someone, the next best option is to bolt the door shut — so you can stop talking about it and thinking about it already!”

This was the horoscope I got last week (via Refinery29). If there’s one thing I suck at, it’s leaving the past behind. I’m good at moving on and moving forward, but I can’t cut people out of my life. So I often start feeling nostalgic about the past. And in another example of “everything is connected,” I feel like the world keeps throwing reminders back at me of a very specific time in my life, namely about 10 years ago, when I was in college.

First, Q101 changes back to an alternative station, playing a lot of songs from the late 90s/early 00’s. Second, I come across this article about emo, My Chemical Romance and Hot Topic. Third, I reconnected with someone I haven’t talked to in about 10 years via Facebook. Lastly, I saw these super cute boots at Target that I had to scoop up because they reminded me of my icon in life, Gwen Stefani, in the 90s.

So, in honor of this trip down memory lane, I made a playlist of emo/alternative songs that take me back to that time where everything seemed so important, and emotions ran high, and behavior was reckless and I was trying to figure out who I was or would be (still working on this part). For context, I wasn’t really much of an alternative/goth kid, but I did love me some emo. Top on my list? “Hands Down” by Dashboard Confessional. What songs am I missing?