My mind holds one emotion on Halloween in Glasgow: distracted. My thoughts race—my skirt feels tight against my skin, I have to get up early tomorrow morning, and my throat hurts from screaming over music just to have a conversation.

The Bobbing Orb, as I have experienced it, occurs when I am overstimulated with noise, assignments, and social interactions. It is when my brain ceases to be an ordered arrangement of reason, memory, schedule, and responsibility and collapses—rather artfully—into a series of floating tendrils that barely keep me tethered to my basic obligations.

Though many enjoy listening to music for its ability to make dull situations more fun, it can also deaden our feelings to the world around us as we insulate ourselves in a soundtrack.