#ThrowbackThursday: “I could’ve been TSwift” Edition

songwriting journal

Just a little announcement here to start, y’all – I finally have more published blogs in my WordPress post manager than I have drafts!! This is a momentous occasion!

Anyways, allow me to introduce a new series to my blog… #ThrowbackThursdays, in which I’ll share some selection of my previous writing samples, either from early diaries, school papers, or old notes on my iPhone.

For the inaugural post, I thought we’d start with a decently hilarious (at least I think so) blast from the past which I discovered while helping my parents clean out their storage unit.

Behold… my songwriting journal!

Phew, well, that confirms it (as if there was ever any doubt): I always had a LOT of feelings, even as a young girl. Too young to be writing about boys though, that’s for sure! I believe I would have written in this journal in 3rd grade, judging by the handwriting and the song about my first mouse, Jitters, dying (“See you in Heaven”). Also in 3rd grade, I got really into Mary-Kate and Ashley movies, especially Passport to Paris, which probably contributed to the overly-dramatic focus on boys and non-existent relationships. Ha!

I’ve captioned the gallery pictures with their titles as best I can imagine what I would have intended them to be, and thought I’d give a little backstory below for as many as I can try to remember something about.

Boy in My Class

No idea who this was supposed to be about, or if it was just me imagining ahead to being in high school. Yeah, let’s go with that.

Give what you want

I wish I could remember what inspired this, but all I know is that a trained pet mouse is a definite need.

I’d Do Anything

It’s important to note that amidst these lyrics (about the two dogs my parents had in North Carolina, Dusty and Midnight, then had to give away after I was born and they discovered I was allergic and would break out in hives): the first line, the “Oh no Mom, we’re allergic,” and the “Guys, don’t leave me!” were all spoken parts in the extra dramatic music video playing in my head.

I never change

I am still getting older and older, but now I share my fears with you fine people. See, who says people can’t change?

The Wind

No idea who the wind blew away from me. So, maybe another overactive imagination situation?

Albatross Around My Neck

In 3rd grade Alpha class, we started learning about idioms and sayings, and I had gotten this idiom dictionary paperback to reference. This is the only song I actually remember writing when I thought back to this journal and how I hoped I would find it among the items I’d left in my childhood room before I knew mom and dad would be downsizing.

This song’s backstory is a confession. One day while riding the bus home from school, my seatmate and I decided to deface the back of the seat in front of us… I chose to write “Danielle was here.” I immediately realized my folly as at this particular moment in time, we had assigned bus seats, so there would be no question as to which Danielle (if there were even multiple ones who rode this specific bus) had dunnit.

I hastily attempted to scribble out over my name, however of course this is when the pen decides to fail me, and when we pulled up to my stop, you could still clearly see my name, and all the other kids around us were all, “We know kids who got in serious trouble for writing on seat backs!! They had to clean buses after school for weeks, or their parents had to pay to re-leather the seats!”

So, cue the over-exaggerated guilt which caused me to lay awake at night for literally three months or something like that, worrying about my parents getting a call from the school and wondering if I should confess before I was caught and how much worse would it be the longer I waited to tell or if I just could wait long enough would they never find out and would the guilt ever go away. Guilt which I then absolved by looking in the idiom dictionary’s index for “guilt” and finding the leading line for this deep song.

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