In high school, I played clarinet and listened primarily to classical music (and EDM). Then in my freshman internship I grew sick of it, and sought out new music.

The first album that spoke to me came from Japanese Breakfast. In her debut album Psychopomp, and later in her memoir Crying in H Mart, she details her mother's death from cancer: the love, the loss, and the yearning. I re-listen and re-read in hard times.

Then in 2021, Michelle Zauner released Jubilee, adorned with persimmons. She explains:

I had seen an image of these hanging persimmons that are dried during the winter and turned into sweet, dried fruit. And I really like the idea of this very bitter, hard fruit before it’s ripened — on display and slowly maturing and turning sweeter and letting its environment impact it.

Today I bought a fuyu persimmon, hoping to get softer and sweeter with age.