Finding home in her headphones: Emily Neelon lives through her music

 

by Emily Fitzgerald |

While many University of Portland students carry headphones to color music into their days, Emily Neelon, a 21-year-old Communication major from Clayton, Calif., takes that pastime to a whole new level. Neelon’s musical taste and talent for creating playlists has enriched her life and the lives of others through the numerous radio-shows she’s hosted throughout her college career.

Though she doesn’t believe she’s musically inclined herself, Neelon’s profound love and taste for music equipped her to host a radio show at KDUP last semester and the fall semester before that. While on a semester-long study abroad program in Ireland, Neelon also had the opportunity to host a show on a local alternative community radio station in Galway. “I don’t like talking on the radio but putting on a playlist is really fun,” Neelon said.

Neelon’s taste in music grows as she does: in high-school she listened to punk and rap, then pop, and now, a graduating senior, she prefers ambient and alternative music. A beanie protects Neelon’s long red hair and large black glasses shield her face. Headphones nestle comfortably in her ears.

Neelon came to the University of Portland because she wanted to go to school in a completely new city, an attempt to get as far away from home as possible. Portland proved to be the perfect setting for Neelon, and not just for its music scene. Neelon found a comforting sense of community at the University of Portland that encouraged her to stay, though it was the enticing beauty of the cherry-blossoms that first wooed her. “I’m a sucker for that sort of thing,” Neelon says.

For Neelon, having a personal soundtrack enriches her life. “I like having something to listen to all the time,” Neelon says, “I usually have my headphones in when I’m not in class or talking to someone.”