Day 01- Guilty pleasure
Day 02- Something that inspires you
Day 03- The five songs you would have with you on a desert island and why
Day 04- What you imagine paradise to be like
Day 05- A thank you letter to someone who has changed your life
Day 06- Earliest thing you can remember
Day 07- Favorite cover of your favorite song
Day 08- Someone you think would make a good president
Day 09- Five things you want to see change
Day 10- A dream you had this past week described in detail
Day 11- Favorite picture ever taken of yourself
Day 12- Your favorite musical artist’s life story
Day 13- A memory that never fails to make you laugh
Day 14- Best mashup you’ve ever heard
Day 15- A moment, phrase, or song that has changed your life the most. 
Day 16- Something that you want to do within the next five years.
Day 17- What you want to remembered for.
Day 18- A picture that makes you feel
Day 19- A passage from a book that has touched you
Day 20- A band that you immediately liked and the song that made you like them
Day 21- Your favorite medium of art.
Day 22- Someone you would give your life up for without question.
Day 23- Most awkward first impression you feel you’ve ever given
Day 24- Something you did as a child that other people remember you for.
Day 25- Something you would do if no one stopped you or if you knew you wouldn’t fail.
Day 26- Your definition of love.
Day 27- Your definition of the meaning of life.
Day 28- A moment you remember being completely happy in and a description of why you believe you were. What is your definition of happiness?
Day 29- What you live for.
Day 30- Ways you believe you have grown over the past thirty days.

“Hello darkness, my old friend, I’ve come to talk with you again,” instantly catapults anyone who watches the first few minutes of “The Graduate” into the world of Benjamin Braddock. Resounding and haunting, the music of Simon and Garfunkel is one of the most important puzzle pieces if a person was to try to figure out why this film has secured a place in both cinematic history and infamy. The simple artistry of picking the right melody, harmony, or lyrics, for just the right moment, can single-handedly impact the way a person views the film, the characters, and the plot. In “The Graduate” this artistry is nearly perfected, completing the framework of a timeless classic, that can even transcend into today’s world.
The opening scene, balanced by the song “The Sound of Silence” and close-ups of Benjamin’s apathetic expression, instantly makes known to the viewer the reality of his boredom and yearning. More present than any other thought on the college graduate’s mind, is the fact that he is going back to the world where he is merely a child and the apple of his parent’s eyes. In this world he is greeted by, “People talking without speaking, People hearing without listening.” In this world, Benjamin’s voice consistently falls silent, “like silent raindrops fell.” The choice of song is not the product of a coincidence, or because Mike Nichols just decided he liked the song. It was deliberate, to describe the world that Benjamin is reentering, and hasn’t felt like himself in for years. The song, with effortless monotony but interesting harmonies, describes the youth retained within Benjamin, but unable to flourish due to the dull world around him.
Even more mysterious than the melodies of the music, are the moments of complete silence, especially in the more symbolic scenes of the film. One of these memorable moments was when Benjamin received his birthday present from his family, a scuba suit with a harpoon.  With coaxing from his father, he is forced to parade around in front of his parent’s friends, wearing the very ‘flattering’ suit. The viewer, with the help of a clever camera angle, embodies Benjamin, and sees what he sees. Complete silence instantly makes the moment awkward and uncomfortable. All you could hear is labored breathing, and all you could see are the laughing faces and obnoxious smiles. With one simple push from his father, Benjamin is thrown into what seems to be an endless abyss, but merely is the family swimming pool. The silence is broken with the splash of the water. Again, this silence is not a coincidence. It is not laziness on the part of the director, but it is in fact, a statement, letting the viewer feel the people staring and laughing. With the same embarrassment felt by the viewers as by Ben, it is easy to make them empathize with him, understanding what he feels. The same emotions would not be able to come across if there had been music and lyrics, distracting the viewer from the awkwardness Benjamin is exposed to.
Throughout the summer and the affair of Mrs. Robinson and Benjamin, it is apparent that his life is empty, lacking joy. In a montage of lazy summer days lying on pool rafts or in the arms of Mrs. Robinson, the song “April Come She Will” plays, another Simon and Garfunkel song.
“April, come she will…
May, she will stay, resting in my arms again,
June, she’ll change her tune…
July, she will fly, and give no warning to her flight,
August, die she must, the autumn winds blow chilly and cold
September, I’ll remember a love once new has now grown old.”
These lyrics, in their mysterious and vague nature, clearly provoke a somber, but yet hopeful feeling. Without them, the montage would be pointless, going through the motions to take up time. With them, the scene is refreshing, foreshadowing that there is something to come in the future worth all of this monotony. Even though Ben might not know of these upcoming events, the viewer receives some sort of justification that Ben’s boredom will not be perpetual, and even though he feels that now he is grasping at thin air, he will soon find something worth all of his futile fighting.
As the plot thickens, Benjamin decides that the only thing he really wants is Elaine. This decisiveness was apparent as the music grew more upbeat. No where in the movie is such a song like “Mrs. Robinson” played, except when the excitement and exhilaration grows inside of Ben when he finally gets to decide something about his life. He chooses Elaine, which is one of the first things he has ever chosen. The song, along with the picture of Ben riding in his car as if challenging the wind that has always blown him, lets the viewer feel with him, the spur of the moment excitement that all humans feel when they are rebellious and take faith into their own hands.
Just as the viewer gets over the excitement of “Mrs. Robinson”, the pace is slowed. All that is heard is simple strokes of an instrument as the car slows… and slows… until it’s stopped. Silence makes a triumphant return as Benjamin gets out of the car, and runs for dear life running for his dear Elaine. Once he arrives at the Church, all that is heard is his calls of “Elaine!” and his fists banging against the glass, begging with all he had for her to be with him. This touching moment of his pleas is capped off as Elaine screaming back “Ben!” This moment would not nearly be as memorable if there hadn’t been silence. The lack of music or talking, made it seem that Elaine and Benjamin were in a world of their own, which is what they felt like in their heads at least. Parents, friends, and commitments didn’t matter as long as they were together, living it together. The silence, in it’s simplistic beauty, made it much more apparent that their lives could be simple too, if they fought the complexity and the chaos.
The silence continues as they run away together, getting on the first bus, until they sit down in the back row, look at each other, and sense the happiness starting to fade. The simplicity falls away, and they are left in confusion, thinking about all the people they left behind to be together. The two of them took the biggest leap they have ever taken in their entire life.  “The Sound of Silence” begins playing again, symbolizing that where Benjamin began, is where he ended up, in a pool of confusion, not knowing what was to come next. “And no one dared, disturb the sound of silence.” This lyric rang true with the silent half-smiles turned to terrified facial expressions. Nothing could disturb the two, silent in thought, and silent in confusion. Neither one of them dared to speak aloud fearing that their words would ruin any chance they had.  Neither one of them spoke fearing that the other was just as confused as they were.
In conclusion, it is more than obvious where the musical ‘coincidences,’ are much more deliberate than one might think. Every note has a purpose in the grand scheme of things. Every lyric is memorable, with a purpose, symbolizing something bigger than Benjamin, Mrs. Robinson, or Elaine. Honest and understanding, the music of Simon and Garfunkel completes a film that was so tastefully done, where any song less than perfection would bring it down. It is obvious that the music chosen was, in the end, more than perfect. The movie ends with the same lyrics that it started with, “Hello darkness, my old friend, I’ve come to talk with you again.”