I started writing songs when I was 9 years old. The content of these songs began with me singing what I knew nothing about. At 9, I wrote like I knew the sinking feeling of heartbreak, of betrayal, of asking someone else how it finally feels to have their heart broken instead of mine.
Though in some ways I could have understood aspects of those feelings at that time, there was so much more left to experience (and don't get me wrong, there still is). But what has always been so important to me, as a songwriter, is to be able to write about perspectives that I may not have, experiences that I may not have faced.
And, as much as it is important to be able to write from other perspectives, I very much adore writing from my own. My daily journal entries and poems fuel my songwriting. I sit on my bedroom floor and write about my relationships, friendships, family, being a women in society, what it feels like to be me and what the world looks like from right here. It's the people that still make it in to your conversations years after the fallout; it's what it feels like on moving day, when it is the third time that year; it's the full truth that is omitted in family stories as you grow up; it's the anxiety that comes with trying to make something work that is much too fragile. I am constantly inspired by mine and others' lives, and by the world around me.
I will continue to write as long as I continue to be. Thank you for listening to me.
