Month: November 2022

naïve leaders: a comparison essay

Liesl Young6 Comments

Hello, everybody, and welcome back to Quote, Unquote!

One of the biggest parts of my exposition and composition (language arts in normal-people-speak) subject is writing essays. This year, we are studying Shakespeare, and oh boy is it a wild ride.

Anyway, one of the plays we just studied was Julius Caesar, and I got into it. Like, into it. I seriously loved the play. It was so good. And because I also love The Hunger Games, I noticed a lot of similarities between the two works.

So for my Julius Caesar essay, I wrote a comparison between the protagonist Brutus in the play and the protagonist of The Hunger Games, Katniss Everdeen. My former director suggested that I post it on my blog, so…here it is! (Mrs. Arndt, if you’re reading this, thank you for the post idea.)

Be warned! Spoilers for both Julius Caesar and the Hunger Games series abound! So if you have not read one or either of them and you would like to, I do recommend not reading this post. I try to keep most of my book reviews spoiler-free, but in this in-depth analysis, it can’t be avoided.

Enjoy!

Naïve Leaders

When one decides to overthrow an entire corrupt government system, be it a dystopian society in the distant future or a soon-to-be dictator in the distant past, one must be ready for the consequences that come with this rebellion. Katniss Everdeen, protagonist of Suzanne Collins’ well-known The Hunger Games trilogy, and Brutus, protagonist of William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, both attempted an enormous rebellion. While they were both more or less successful, their personal losses were devastating enough to make it a Pyrrhic victory, and their naïveté meant that these losses were much more acute than if a normal person had been leading their respective rebellions. 

A common symbol in both of these works of literature is that of family. Both Brutus and Katniss’ families play a part, however insignificant, in these books. To Katniss, family is her most important thing. After her father dies in the mines, her mother sinks into deep depression. When Katniss is about to leave to participate in the Hunger Games, she shouts at her mother not to leave again, and in her voice is “all the fear [she] felt at [her mother’s] abandonment” (Collins, The Hunger Games 35). If Katniss lost her family, she would be destroyed. Meanwhile, Brutus neglects his only family, his beloved wife Portia, for his cause. He is so wrapped up in his plot to kill Caesar and the hullabaloo that follows that his wife commits suicide, “[i]mpatient of [his] absence” (Shakespeare 4.3.174). Brutus valued his cause over his family so much that he would not stay with her and give her the help she needed. While family is a symbol in both The Hunger Games and Julius Caesar, the two main characters have wildly different stances on it.

Both Katniss and Brutus are figureheads of a rebellion. In The Hunger Games, Katniss and her merry band of rebels are fighting against the injustice of the Capitol suppressing the districts. In Julius Caesar, Brutus leads the plot to kill Caesar, ending him with his famous final words, “Et tu, Brutè” (Shakespeare 3.1.85)? However, though they are both figureheads, they do not make their own plans for their rebellions. Katniss is not mentally sound enough to be able to lead her country to victory—she is merely a symbol. Her mockingjay that inspires the rebels is used on everything, even “baked into bread” (Collins, Catching Fire 139). Her plot is masterminded by someone else—namely, President Coin, the corrupt leader of District 13. Meanwhile, Brutus could invent his own schemes if he wanted to, but he makes some fatal mistakes and therefore lets Cassius do the orchestrating. Though they are leaders and seen as the most important people behind their plans, there are several others working in the background.

Perhaps the most important and shocking trait of these two characters, though, is their startlingly similar naïveté. For such important leaders as these, one might think that they would be mature and ready to take on such responsibilities. Katniss’ naïveté can be explained, as she is only seventeen years old and already suffering immense losses, but she is still severely mentally ill and should not be leading a rebellion in the first place. She acknowledges in Mockingjay that it is “impossible to be the Mockingjay” (Collins 162). She is clearly not old enough or strong enough to lead a rebellion against an entire country. However, Brutus has no excuse. He was likely in middle age, which means that his brain had had ample time to develop. Given this, he still made fatal mistakes, such as allowing Antony to have the last word at Caesar’s funeral. Antony turns the crowd against Brutus using several logical fallacies, telling them over and over again that “Brutus was an honorable man” (Shakespeare 3.2.96) but clearly meaning the opposite. By allowing Antony to publicly turn against him, it weakened his spirit and his public support so much that he eventually ran upon his own sword, meeting the same end as his neglected wife—death by suicide. Brutus’s naïveté meant a much bloodier and more devastating end than Katniss’s, but neither of them should have been able to lead a rebellion as far as they did, given their lack of mental stability and maturity. 

Given these similarities and differences, Katniss and Brutus are similar to the point where it is fair to say that they should not be in charge of as much as they are. Their families are both detrimental to their cause in extreme ways, and they are both naïve enough that even if they were the masterminds of their own plots, they should not be—in fact, they should not be in charge of a rebellion at all. A rebellion takes mental and emotional maturity. If one decides to lead a rebellion, one would do well to ensure that they are properly equipped and emotionally ready for such an enormous task.

Works Cited

Collins, Suzanne. Catching Fire. Scholastic Press, 2009.

—. The Hunger Games. Scholastic Press, 2008.

—. Mockingjay. Scholastic Press, 2010.Shakespeare, William.

Julius Caesar. Edited by Barbara A. Mowat and Paul Werstine. The Folger Shakespeare Library, 2011.

—

Well, I hope you enjoyed! Have you read either or both of these works? What other similarities have you noticed?

Thank you so much for reading, and I’ll see you next Wednesday!

3 tips to make your NaNoWriMo project even longer

Liesl Young23 Comments

Hello, everybody, and welcome back to Quote, Unquote!

NaNoWriMo is hard. Like, really hard. Who decided that this was a good idea anyway? 50,000 whole words in only 30 days? Craziness.

So in this post, I’m going to give you some simple tips and tricks to easily increase your NaNo wordcount and give your novel an extra little boost.

1. set your story in the South

If you don’t know, Southerners really like double names. And, obviously, you can’t have a character that’s not named–you likely have to use their name somewhere in the story, unless you’re Max Brooks. (If you got that reference, well…I’m sorry.)

Do you know how many total times I use my main characters’ names in my book? 1,335 times. Granted, I do have two main characters, and I am writing this in third person, but the words Tessa, Tess, Cady, and Cadence come up one thousand, three hundred thirty-five times. Given where I’m at in my novel at the moment, that’s almost five percent of my whole book.

Now, imagine if both of my characters were Southern and had unhyphenated double names. Maybe Cadence Ann, or Tessa Grace. That would easily add an extra 1,335 words to my book with nearly no effort. So setting your story in the South totally pays off.

(Mia…I’m sorry.)

2. have your characters speak like Regency-era ladies

By which I mean: Never, ever use contractions. This is along the same lines as the double names thing. Obviously, with words like can’t, it doesn’t make a difference, because can’t converts to cannot, which is still one word. But words like don’t, doesn’t, it’s? You can easily expand your story exponentially just by never using contractions.

In fact, this is probably a better strategy than the Southern thing, because these words will likely appear way more often than your characters’ names. That’s not necessarily the case in my novel, which surprised me, but again, I have two main characters and a third person POV.

3. channel the spirit of Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens, as you may know if you were ever in school and forced to read British literature (yes, forced, even if you liked it), was horribly wordy. You just know that that guy was avoided at parties. In fact, many people believe that he was paid by the word because of how long-winded his novels are. He wasn’t, I checked, but it remains on his reputation.

If you need to, read a Dickens novel before sitting down to write to channel that lengthy spirit of his. Not the whole novel—that would take you all of NaNo. Just one sentence, even, because even that will take you ten minutes.

Obviously, this is all satirical. Please don’t take this seriously. But even so, I wish you all the best in stretching out your NaNo novel over all of 50k words.

Thanks you so much for reading, and I’ll see you next Wednesday!

know the novel – part two: writing Project Runaway

Liesl Young14 Comments

Hello, everybody, and welcome back to Quote, Unquote!

We are deep into NaNoWriMo by this point, and with that comes the second part of Christine Smith’s NaNo linkup!

I really don’t have much else to say that won’t spoil the answers to my questions, so I’m just going to hop right in. Let’s go!

1. how’s the writing going overall?

I’m pleased to announce that it’s going very well! I’m actually ahead of schedule due to my 10,000-word head start on the first day. I’ve been able to keep up my motivation thus far and I hope it continues. As of yesterday, I have 30,326 words on my draft!

2. what’s been the most fun aspect about writing this novel so far?

Chapter eleven. Not going to lie, I had more fun writing that chapter than I have basically the entire rest of the book. It’s just kind of a vibey chapter–the characters don’t really do much, per se, but it was so fun to write that I don’t really care.

3. what do you think of your characters at this point? who’s your favorite to write about?

Not gonna lie, they’re kind of bugging me. They are making some really poor choices in the way they treat themselves and others, and I wish I wasn’t in charge of them because it’s like herding cats. Gosh, is this what being a parent feels like?

My favorite to write about is Cady. She’s more innocent than Tessa, her best friend, and writing about her experiencing the real world for the first time is so fun. She’s a lot like me, too, so that makes it a little bit easier. Plus, I love her interactions with her siblings.

4. has your novel surprised you in any way?

Not too much. Since I did so much plotting–well, it wasn’t so much plotting, but it felt like it because up until now I’ve never plotted–nothing is really coming as a surprise to me. I’m right on schedule, my characters are doing everything I expected them to…all is well.

Now, of course, it’s all going to derail and I’m going to wish I had answered this question differently.

5. have you come across any problem areas?

I haven’t come across any in the actual story itself (haha…yet), but one of my biggest problem areas overall has been finding time to sit down and write. I ended up being way more busy on the weekends than I anticipated, so once it became clear that the schedule I had planned wasn’t going to work, I had to do some tweaking. Once I did that, though, everything’s been running rather smoothly.

That’s kind of concerning, actually. The novel is going…really well. Like, surprisingly well. I’m a little suspicious now. There’s gotta be something that jumps out at me and completely derails me.

6. what’s been your biggest victory with writing this novel at this point?

Genuinely just sitting down and hammering it out. I planned really well, and now the writing is going really well. I’ve been really good about writing every single day since November 1st, and I’m on track for finishing well before the 30th. I’ve never been this consistent with writing before, and I’ve definitely never written this much in this little time before. It really shows how much I’ve matured since I last attempted NaNo.

7. if you were transported into your novel and became any one of the characters, which one do you think you’d be? would you take any different actions than they have?

Like I said, Cady is a lot like me, so I’m pretty sure I would become her. She’s a worrier, she’s never really seen the world but wants to, she dreams big, and she is good at making plans. These are all things that I also embody, and I feel like we’d be good friends if she were real.

I would definitely take different actions than she has. There is no way I’d have the gall to book train tickets on a whim and run away to California with my best friend. The story wouldn’t even get past the inciting incident if I was Cady.

8. give us the first sentence or paragraph then 2 (or 3!) more favorite snippets!

Please don’t laugh at my unedited snippets.

The story starts from Cady’s perspective.

Dear Ms. de Smet,

We are pleased to admit you to the University of California, Los Angeles, class of 2024…

Cadence’s heart stopped. 

I got in.

The next one is from chapter five. It’s right before the first plot point.

“Let’s run away.”

It burst out of Cady’s mouth suddenly and spiraled through the air. She could almost see the moment it landed in Tessa’s mind, her eyes widening, mouth opening…. She didn’t know if she wanted to take it back or if it was the most brilliant idea she had ever had.

“That’s the most brilliant idea you’ve ever had,” Tessa breathed. “Let’s do it. What do we have to lose?”

And one last one, from chapter eight, where they take a detour in Chicago, Tessa’s old hometown:

Sometime in the afternoon, Tessa saw Cady pushing her phone deep into her pocket, looking annoyed. “What is it?” she asked.

“My parents keep calling me,” Cady explained. “Henry too. I feel kind of guilty for ignoring him.”

Tessa frowned as something struck her. “Can they track you?”

A sudden look of horror passed over Cady’s face. “Oh no. They can. They can see me on Find My. What do I do?” She began hyperventilating, panicking. “I’m going to compromise this whole thing. They’re going to find us.”

Tessa wanted to panic too, but one panicking party was bad enough, so she willed herself to calm down. “We have to get rid of your phone,” she said urgently. “How are we going to do that?”

“I don’t want to just leave it here,” Cady said. “But I don’t see what other option we have. I feel like we have to destroy it. Like…for good.”

“We could put it in the street and wait for someone to run over it,” Tessa suggested. 

“Or…” A slow, almost sinister smile spread across Cady’s face. “We could throw it in the river.”

Tessa grinned wildly. “Let’s do it. Come on.”

They were nearest to the Michigan Avenue Bridge. Within minutes, they had raced there. What are we doing? a tiny part of Tessa was screaming at her. But she ignored it and looked over the rail of the bridge.

Cady held the phone in both hands, staring at it. She laughed suddenly. “I feel like we need to have a funeral.”

Tessa made the sign of the cross over Cady’s phone with two fingers. “You have served us well,” she said solemnly, “but it is now your time to be committed to the sea.”

Cady giggled. “You will be missed,” she said, pretending to wipe away a tear. 

“Not by me,” Tessa said. 

Cady tossed the phone over the rail into the rushing river below, and they both watched as it disappeared. Cady stared at where it had sunk below the waves.

“You good?” Tessa asked her, worried that she was about to start panicking again. Maybe she regretted her decision.

Cady shrugged. “I feel like we’re littering. But if a sea turtle starts posting from my Instagram account, I guess it’ll be worth it.”

That last one was kinda long, but it’s one of my favorite scenes overall, so I decided to share it.

9. share an interesting tidbit about the writing process so far!

Well, I did change a character’s name entirely about two days before I started drafting. Meredith changed to Cadence, but I call her Cady most of the book. I felt like it fits her better. I’m still not entirely hooked on Tessa’s name, but until a better one comes to me, she’s staying Tessa.

I also finally caved and reactivated my Pinterest account so I could make a Pinterest board for my novel. (Here it is if you’re interested.) It’s been serving me well, because whenever I feel like I don’t want to continue writing, I just go in and add some new pins and it makes me feel productive and inspired.

Another thing I’ve been doing is filling in this little chart that I made whenever I write another thousand words. It has five rows of ten thousand words each, and whenever I hit another thousand-word milestone, I fill in another square. I keep it on my desk next to my computer. It’s a great motivator. I highly recommend having tangible progress in front of you if you need motivation to keep going.

10. take us on a tour of what a normal writing day for this novel looks like.

Well, there are no “normal” writing days, because my schedule is crazy, but here goes.

On weekends and Wednesdays, I’m usually busy, so I don’t get a ton of writing done, usually only about 500-700 words. It’s all I have the mental energy for on busy days, but at least I’m churning out something.

On Mondays, Thursdays, and Fridays, I have schoolwork, so I get it done and then sit down in the afternoon to write. I usually start around 2 or 3 in the afternoon and finish around 4 or 5. How much I write on those days really depends on my mental energy, how much schoolwork I have, and how motivated I feel. I try to churn out at least 1.5k on those days.

However, Tuesdays are my productive days. I finish all my schoolwork in three days so I have Tuesday to write. I’m usually home alone for most of the day, and I can get massive amounts of words out in one day. The first Tuesday of the month I obviously did 10k, and after that I’m hoping to do about 3-4k every week.

As for the actual writing process itself, I usually write in silence. Sometimes I light my amber and sandalwood candle that my sister hates because she thinks it smells like cologne. Generally, I’ll write in my room at my desk with my knees tucked up under me. I write in 50-minute sprints with 10-minute breaks in between, and sometimes I’ll eat snacks or drink my favorite tea. (I’m not being paid to say this, wish I was, but if you like tea, try Tazo’s lemon loaf tea. If you put a little bit of sugar or sweetener in it, it literally tastes like cake. It’s my lifeblood.)

So that’s how my NaNo is going! Thank you so much, Christine, for hosting this linkup. I’m having lots of fun with it!

Are you participating in NaNoWriMo? If so, how’s it going?

I’ll see you next Wednesday!

my 10,000-word experiment + tips for trying this at home

Liesl Young21 Comments

Hello, everybody, and welcome back to Quote, Unquote!

Last Tuesday, on November 1, I did something crazy.

I wrote ten thousand words in one day.

I wanted to do this to get a head start on NaNo, so that when there were days when I just couldn’t write more than a few hundred words I would still be okay and be on target for finishing the full 50K. (And honestly, it’s just kind of fun to be able to tell people that you wrote ten thousand words in one day.)

I’m gonna be honest. It was exhausting. It took me five hours and twenty minutes total to finish the whole thing. I’ll walk you through my day and tell you how it went, and then give you some tips for attempting this on your own.

Ready?

my 10,000-word day

I woke up in the morning feeling pretty pumped. I ate breakfast, worked out, did all my usual morning stuff, and then sat down to write at 9:00. I decided to write in 50-minute sprints with 10-minute breaks in between, since that’s worked well for me in the past.

And it worked well this time! By the time I took a break for lunch, I had my first 4.5k in the bag. The words were flowing smoothly–I definitely work best in the mornings. I had planned to write as long as I needed to, but having a forecasted time of finishing was helpful. It turned out that I could write about 1.5k every fifty minutes as long as I stayed focused, so I planned to finish around 4:00.

I ate lunch and took a short walk to recharge my mental batteries and to get away from my screen for a little bit. (I also met a really cute tiny dog on my walk, which was the best thing ever. Shoutout to Stella for making my day better.)

After lunch, it was harder to focus. I kept writing until 2:50, at which point my friend texted and told me that she could play Minecraft with me, and since we hadn’t played Minecraft together for ages, I took a 40-minute break. It was kind of nice, because by that point my brain was just slipping. I was basically writing just for the sake of writing. Which is okay, because I’m writing for quantity during NaNo, not quality, but I needed a break so I didn’t burn out.

By the time I started up again, I had just over 2k to go, and I did a long sprint for this one. The last 70 minutes were a struggle, honestly. I was tired of sitting, so I made a makeshift stand-up desk on my bookshelves and wrote like that for a while. The words were just not flowing the way they had in the morning, but I pushed through it.

I finished at 4:40 in the afternoon with exactly 10,000 words. Without breaks, it took me five hours and twenty minutes. With breaks, it took me six hours and forty minutes.

And then I told everybody I knew and shut down my computer.

(Actually, that’s a lie. I played more Minecraft.)

please do try this at home, kids

If you’re aiming for a ridiculously high goal in a ridiculously short amount of time, like a day, here are some things I did to make it easier on myself.

1. tell people!

There are two reasons you need to tell people that you’re attempting to reach a high goal in a day.

Number one is motivation and accountability. Tell fellow writers or friends that support you about your goal and update them along the way. I have a few writer friends that I text on a near-daily basis, and I let them know that I was trying this so they could cheer me on. At the end of the day, after I finished, I told them that I had accomplished my goal and they all sent me lots of happy gifs and texts with exclamation points.

Number two is concentration. If you live with others, tell them that you’re going to be disappearing into your story for the day. If for whatever reason you’re unable to secure a quiet place at home where you can work uninterrupted, consider going to the library or even a friend’s house and set up shop there for the day. For me, I knew that if I was going to attempt this, I would need to not be interrupted constantly, because that would take me out of my “flow.” Fortunately, the only other person at home the day I did this was my mom, and since she had to do a bunch of her own desk work, I let her know that I would be disappearing and she agreed to stay out of my way.

2. set an attainable goal

Set a goal that you know you can reach. I knew that I could do a whole 10k in one day if I tried–I’d just never tried before. If I had set a goal of accomplishing, like, the entirety of NaNo in one day or even one week, I would have started out psyched but quickly lost steam as I realized how unattainable that was.

Figure out what your limits are and work around them. If you can only do 5k or 2k in one day, that’s perfectly fine. The goal here is to stretch you, not break your back or various other bones.

3. plan out a schedule, but keep it flexible

My schedule was 50-minute chunks with 10-minute breaks. I had a set time for when I was going to start and when I was going to eat lunch, and I worked around that. However, I didn’t hold myself rigidly to only 50-minute chunks with 10-minute breaks–I allowed myself time to play Minecraft with my friend.

Again, figure out what works for you personally here. If you work better in shorter spurts with longer breaks, you do you. If you’d rather go for three hours straight without stopping, I don’t recommend that, but you do you.

But listen to what your mind and body are telling you and be willing to change your schedule if you need to. Breaks are so important! Please don’t stare at your computer screen all day. Take a walk, stretch, touch grass, talk to an actual human being. If the schedule you’re using isn’t working for you, you can throw it out the window and start all over.

Also, if what works for you is not having a schedule, I wouldn’t recommend that either, but it’s your choice. Learn from your prior experiences, and if you don’t have any, well, you’re making one right now and you can look back on that later.

4. make it easy on yourself

One of the big things I did to prepare for this day was do all of my schoolwork for the day ahead of time. I had everything all prepared so I could just start writing instead of worrying about my outline or anything else. I knew what I was going to eat for lunch, and having a schedule prepared me, too.

Prep things ahead of time. Finish work due before the day you’re attempting to finish your goal. Make meals and stick them in the fridge or freezer so you can just reheat them when you’re hungry. Clear your schedule so you have the entire day ahead of you to do nothing but write. You will thank yourself.

5. take care of yourself!

In my health and nutrition course, we learned that everybody has a brain reserve that all mental activities stem from. The brain reserve is replenished by getting enough sleep, exercise, fresh air and sunlight, and healthy food.

Writing is a mental activity, and your brain reserve needs restocking! Please, please, please, please exercise and eat healthily during this day. Exercise helps you more than you think. Get a good nights’ sleep before your big goal day and prep healthy meals for yourself. Please don’t just sit around all day eating junk food.

6. make it fun

The biggest thing you can do for yourself here is make yourself want to reach a crazy high goal in a crazy short amount of time. Have a story that you love writing. Surround yourself with things that make you happy–I lit my favorite candle while I was writing. Have snacks that you love on hand. Enjoy it! And enjoy the sense of accomplishment that comes with it.

final words

Would I recommend that you do this?

Absolutely.

Having a head start on NaNo was the best thing that came of this for me. Also, being able to say that I wrote ten thousand words in a day is pretty fun.

It’s a great way to stretch yourself and your boundaries. If you’re planning on writing seriously when you’re older (or even right now!), this is a good way to kind of test your endurance for later.

If you do attempt or have attempted a big goal day, I’d love to hear about it!

I hope this has inspired and helped you.

Love always,

the me and music tag…again

Liesl Young23 Comments

Hello, friends! Welcome back to my blog.

Before I begin with the actual content, I would like to issue a warning: I am not pre-writing all of my posts for November, because I thought of that too late, so I’m kind of going easy on myself with the posts this month. I definitely want to keep up my blogging streak, but quite frankly, I am going to be way too fried with NaNo to put actual effort into posts, heheh. So you’re going to get some blog tags and book reviews this month, and I’ll be back with the “quality” content in December, I promise.

Now, you may recognize this tag, because I’ve done it on my blog before in March of 2021. However, Mia (who is mentioned so much on this blog that she probably should be a coauthor by now) inspired me to do it again and see how much my tastes have changed. And I was scrolling through that really old post going, “…yikes, why was I so cringe back then.”

So here’s a redo, throwback, update, whatever you want to call it.

the rules

  1. Link back to original (Sophie @ Me and Ink) so she can see your answers and listen to the tunes.
  2. For every prompt you choose to do, name 1-5 songs (you can use Sophie’s graphics).
  3. Have fun and play your music LOUD!

the tag

Mercury by Imagine Dragons
Origins by Imagine Dragons
X Games by Au/Ra (middle school throwback!)
Year of the Sunflower by Jake Scott

You can already tell that you’re going to be seeing a lot of Imagine Dragons in this post. Brace yourself.

My truest home is my church. I’ve been at the same church technically since before I was born. My parents were married there, I and my sister were both baptized and confirmed there, and it’s where I met my best friends. So I’m going to give you some traditional Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod hymns that remind me of my home.

“A Mighty Fortress” by Martin Luther || A mighty fortress is our God / A bulwark never failing
“For All the Saints” by William Walsham || Thy name, O Jesus / Be forever blest / Alleluia, alleluia
“I Know that My Redeemer Lives” by Samuel Medley || I know that my Redeemer lives / What comfort this sweet sentence gives!

Oh man, I dread this question. I do not listen to popular music (hehehe, I’m not like other girls–KIDDING!). I’ll go through the Billboard charts really quick and see if I can scrounge some up.

“As It Was” by Harry Styles || In this world / It’s just us / You know it’s not the same as it was
“Victoria’s Secret” by Jax (clean version) || I know Victoria’s secret / She was made up by a dude
“golden hour” by JVKE || I was all alone with the love of my life / She’s got glitter for skin, my radiant beam in the night

I swear, if I get hate comments about the Harry Styles song…

Haha…all of them? My dancing’s not terribly good, but I love dancing anyway.

“Calypso – Remix” by Luis Fonsi, KAROL G, Andrés Torres, and Mauricio Rengifo || Un, dos, tres, calypso / Un, deux, trois, calypso / One, two, three, calypso / Te daré, calypso
“Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)” by Beyoncé || If you liked it then you shoulda put a ring on it
“Classic” by MKTO || You’re over my head, I’m out of my mind / Thinkin’ I was born in the wrong time
“Pierre” by Ryn Weaver || And then I found me a lover who could play the bass / He’s kinda quiet but his body ain’t

I’m listening to “Classic” to get the lyrics right now and bopping my head.

“Non-Stop” from Hamilton || Why do you assume you’re the smartest in the room? / Soon that attitude may be your doom
“We Don’t Talk about Bruno” from Encanto || We don’t talk about Bruno, no, no, no / We don’t talk about Bruno
“I Won’t Say (I’m in Love)” from Hercules || No chance, no way / I won’t say it, no no
“Go, Go, Go Joseph” from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat || Go, go, go, Joseph, you know what they say / Hang on now Joseph, you’ll make it someday

Oof, you’re really going to make myself expose myself right here?

“A True, True Friend” from My Little Pony || A true, true friend helps a friend in need / A friend will be there to help you see
“Glow” by Britt Nicole || Turn it up, make it loud on your radio / We’re gonna dance everywhere we go
“Cups (Pitch Perfect’s “When I’m Gone”) by Anna Kendrick || I’ve got a ticket for the long way round / The one with the prettiest of views

Yeah, that’s right. I watched My Little Pony.

I’m pretty sure that if I put the 80’s as “like really old ones” my parents will kill me. But here goes.

“Sweet Child O’ Mine” by Guns ‘n’ Roses || She’s got a smile that it seems to me / Reminds me of childhood memories
“Back in Black” by AC/DC || Back in black / I hit the sack / It’s been too long, I’m glad to be back
“Right Now” by Van Halen || Right now / Hey, it’s your tomorrow / Right now / Come on, it’s everything
“Photograph” by Def Leppard || Oh, look what you’ve done to this rock ‘n’ roll clown
“High Enough” by Damn Yankees || Can you take me high enough / To fly me over yesterday?

For the record, I only know these because of my dad listening to the radio when I used to drive with him. I rarely drive with just him anymore since I usually drive myself, and when my mom’s in the car, she makes him turn it off, which is good, because his music taste has morphed from epic 80’s rock to foul German heavy metal.

…yeah.

“We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” by Taylor Swift || You go talk to your friends, talk to my friends, talk to me / But we are never, ever, ever, ever getting back together
“What You Do to Me” by Blanks || ‘Cause baby when we touch / It’s like the whole world stops / And I wish I knew what it is you do
“Blank Space” by Taylor Swift || So it’s gonna be forever / Or it’s gonna go down in flames
“Sharks” by Imagine Dragons || So let it go, let it go, that’s the way that it goes / First you’re in, then you’re out, everybody knows

Say whatever you will about Taylor Swift, but her songs sure are fun to sing.

I don’t tend to listen to music that calms me. I just want to feel something. Generally, calm music puts me to sleep. Anyway, let’s see what we can pull out.

“The Fall” by Imagine Dragons || I’m ready for the fall / I’m ready for everything I believed in to drift away
“Second Chances” by Imagine Dragons || Open up again, I believe in second chances
“the author” by Luz || Someone tell the author / What I really think of her

I forgot about this one! I’ve actually started keeping “song scrapbooks”–Spotify playlists, one for each season, and I add songs that mean something to me from specific events. Given that I only started this summer, all of these memories will be fairly recent.

“In All Things” by LCMSYG House Band || In all things, we see Your face / All of creation shouts Your praise

This was the theme song of the National Youth Gathering I attended in Houston this year. We would sing this at the beginning of every Mass Event. I remember singing it at the top of my voice (which was gone) in a baseball stadium with 20,000 other Lutheran kids. It was amazing. I’m getting chills just thinking about it.

“Fight” by Julianne Post || So I’m gonna fight / I’m not gonna run / You might win but I’m / Not backin’ down till this is done

I know the singer and songwriter of this song through the Young Writer’s Workshop! She performed it at the YDubs conference in August. She also sang an original song she wrote specifically for the conference called “Glory Days,” but it’s not on Spotify. That one made everybody cry.

“Love Story” by Taylor Swift || And I said / “Romeo, take me somewhere we can be alone / I’ll be waiting, all there’s left to do is run”

Hehe…this was a fun memory. My sister and I had just given our old minivan a good, thorough cleaning. We took it to go mini golfing with our youth group, and afterwards we went out for ice cream. We ate our ice cream in the back of the van with all of the seats folded down and listened to music together. My sister and I performed a very dramatic rendition of “Love Story,” much to our friends’ amusement.

No…please no. Why would you do this to me?

“Nearer My God to Thee” from Titanic
“Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story” from Hamilton || And when my time is up, have I done enough?
“Little Girl” by Faith Marie || And don’t speak unless you’re spoken to, little girl / Someday you will find your place in the world

And now I’m dangerously close to crying. Come on. Why?

I’m sorry. Some of these are in German.

“Tote singen lauter” by Philipp Dittberner || Tote singen lauter / Immer ‘n bisschen lauter (The dead sing louder / Always a little louder)
“Selene” by Imagine Dragons || To the top of all the world / To the tasteless underworld / To the center of your heart, oh, Cleopatra is the only one you loved
“Never Come Back Again” by Austin Plaine || I wanna see the world / I wanna sail the ocean / I wanna know what it feels like to never come back again
“Wenn sie tanzt” by Max Giesinger || Dann geht sie barfuß in New York / Trampt alleine durch Alaska / Springt vor Bali über Board und taucht durch das blaue Wasser (Then she goes barefoot in New York / Hitchhikes alone through Alaska / Jumps overboard in Bali and dives through the blue waters)

“W.I.T.C.H.” by Devon Cole || She don’t wanna be anybody else / She’s a woman in total control of herself
“That’s My Girl” by Fifth Harmony || Destiny said it, you got to get up and get it / Get mad independent and don’t you ever forget it
“I’LL SHOW YOU” by K-DA et. al || I’ll show you what I’m made of / Rise to the occasion / Got fears but I face them

I don’t usually watch a lot of music videos, so you only get one right now.

“Sharks” by Imagine Dragons || So let it go, let it go, that’s the way that it goes / First you’re in, then you’re out, everybody knows

They even have a BTS!

Worth every minute.

My sister tricked me into liking One Direction when she went through a phase a while back.

“What Makes You Beautiful” by One Direction || You’re insecure / Don’t know what for / You’re turning heads when you walk through the do-o-or
“Heads Carolina, Tails California” by Jo Dee Messina || Heads Carolina, tails California / Somewhere greener, somewhere warmer

Pretty much all of the songs listed in the “let’s get down to business” one are songs I’m listening to on repeat right now, as well as a few others.

“golden hour” by JVKE || I was all alone with the love of my life / She’s got glitter for skin, my radiant beam in the night
“Queens Don’t” by RaeLynn || Queens don’t hate, queens don’t fight / Queens don’t stay unless their king treats them right

Hooooo boy.

“You Belong With Me” by Taylor Swift || She wears short skirts, I wear t-shirts / She’s cheer captain and I’m on the bleachers
“Still Falling For You” by Ellie Goulding || And just like that / All I breathe / All I feel / You are all for me / I’m in
“Shower” by Becky G || Well you’re the reason why / I’m dancing in the mirror / And singing in the shower
“Something Just Like This” by The Chainsmokers and Coldplay || But she said, “Where’d you wanna go? / How much you wanna risk? / I’m not looking for somebody with some superhero gifts”

And that’s a wrap! That turned out to be an incredibly long post, but I enjoyed writing it and I hope you enjoyed reading it.

I’ll see you next Wednesday!