I like to use songs to encapsulate moments and memories in my life. I have lists in journals and my phone of years of my life tied to songs. People I love and the songs that represent them. Music is how I represent how I feel, so that is the only way I can describe my high school experience.
This year at the first choir concert of the year, concert choir sang “Light of a Clear Blue Morning”. Originally a Dolly Parton song, it has since been arranged into a choir piece. The beginning starts with a beautiful solo, which I was lucky enough to sing in Opstad. I absorbed the lyrics as if they were written solely for me. The lyrics present a journey. Someone has gone through a “long hard night” and has put up a “long hard fight”. The song repeats “Everything’s gonna work out fine, Everything’s gonna be all right.”
The feeling when you’re with all your friends late at night. Or when you and your siblings agree on something and laugh. When you find that song you’ve been looking for, or you read a beloved book again. All of those moments are reassurance, I find them comforting. They are small and fleeting. As I reflect on the past four years, I realize how many precious moments I did have. But they don’t outweigh the times I felt alone and broken. This year especially, I have found that I have needed those moments of peace more than ever. But, I now see how Dolly’s powerful words can give the reassurance that I will need to carry into the next chapter of my life.
As I sang, the words rang out to the audience, but more importantly, they stuck with me. I made it through high school, and I can make it through the next four years too. And so can you. There was a “long hard fight” but that has passed. Everything will be fine, everything will turn out the way it is supposed to. And if you think it won’t, that just means the story isn’t over yet. There is also a part that says “I see a brand new day dawning”. That is something that will never fade, and you will never lose. There will always be a brand new day for you. If you ever feel lost like I did, use these words as reassurance, I have found great comfort in them.
I found this on eBay.
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