A Song Out of Nothing
By Naomi
It’s a Beautiful Day
The following are lyrics to a short song I sing when I’m happy:It’s a beautiful day
I’m gonna take a stand
It’s a beautiful day oh
I’m gonna take stand
I woke up with a fresh melody in my mind
Taking bout, the good things that I’ve come by
There is something deep inside of me, that smiles wide
When I’m talking bout, the good things that I’ve come by
I drag my feet out the door
With my friends, we all sit happily, in my mind
Except it’s real now, and part of me doesn’t know how to act
I told a joke and their laughing, in my mind
Except it’s real now, a part me still don’t know how to act
I drag my feet out the door
Cause it’s a beautiful day
I’m gonna take a stand
Things are going my way
And for the first time, things don’t feel so bland
I’ve been hoping for a huge change to come around
But for the first time in a while
I think I’m found
Ooh ooh
For the first time in a while
I think I’m found
Ooh ooh
For the first time
Explanation
Often times when we are going about our daily routines, maintaining our sanity amongst the hustle and bustle of normal activities, we perform many mundane tasks that we come to view as insignificant due to their repetitive nature. When something is perceived as insignificant, oftentimes by not even being perceived at all, it becomes meaningless, and when something becomes meaningless, one can almost think of it as not existing at all. Nothing.On special days in particular, as I am going throughout my daily routine, there’s a song I often find myself singing. It’s a song that I can never tell if I heard somewhere during my travels, or if I wrote it a long time ago. I sing it so often that it’s second nature to me, I naturally let the words flow out of my mouth when the sun is shining and my spirits are high. I’ve tended to regard this song as insignificant in the past, as it’s unfinished, but I never let myself forget how happy it lets me feel.
I thought of this song when I saw the prompt for this class because it’s part of my monotonous routine that I tend to regard as nothing, but how wonderful it makes me feel motivates me to make it something, by finishing and recording it.
My fourth object submission, something out of nothing, is the lyrics of a song I wrote to raise my spirits during happy days. It’s special to me because I rarely—and by rarely I mean extremely close to never—write happy songs. So to have a song that I specifically sing when I’m happy, gives me hope for the future. That one day I’ll not only have happy songs but ones that range in mood, from sad to happy to angry and maybe even jealous. I try to reference things that make me happy in the verses, like waking up with a melody in my head or telling a joke that makes my friends laugh. The repeating build that I have throughout the song, “I drag my feet out the door” references the daily struggle I have to get out of my room and face the day. While this struggle might not follow the upbeat mood of the song, it’s the outcome that I have of finally getting out of my room that gives me joy, it’s about how good the accomplishment of getting up feels.
While I was unable to record the song due to a lack of time and skill, I did manage to write the rest of it and create a final draft of the lyrics. The process itself was very difficult. Usually, song lyrics just run out of me, often times faster than I can write them down, so I just set my phone to record and sing all of my ideas out loud until I’m empty. But when I tried to write this song, I found myself struggling, which was something I wasn’t used to. Then it hit me: I’m not used to this. I write songs to let emotions out, to release the pain and tension I’m feeling about a situation. I’d never tried to write a song to honor or celebrate an emotion I was feeling. So I sat down and I worked hard to write what I did. It may not be as eloquent as my saddest songs, and it may not be a tear-jerker like my saddest stories, but it makes me happy, it makes me feel something good, so to me that’s all that matters. I’ll end this explanation with another short tune I sing when I’m happy, one that I’ve yet to finish, but one that I can still believe to be beautiful.
Everything is going right for me
Yeah, things are looking up
Everything is good right you’ll see!
I’m just not used to this