Choklit Blog #27: 10 Things I'm Still Thankful for the Day AFTER Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is obviously really awesome. For me, it usually consists of mostly eating and sleeping. Two of my favorite things. And on Thanksgiving, people are usually talking about how great their lives are and all the things they’re thankful for. But as soon as it’s over, everyone starts stressing like crazy about getting to Wal-Mart before 4 am and not getting killed in the stampede that they know will be directly behind them. The people who survive early morning shopping on Black Friday definitely have something to be thankful for, but since it’s not Thanksgiving, they’re not. And so I thought that this year, instead of posting my usual “Here’s 100 random things I’m thankful for on Thanksgiving” list (which is more like “Here’s 100 random things that exist”), I would wait until the next day and write about things I’m thankful for the day after Thanksgiving. (That is not what actually happened. I didn’t have time yesterday.) So here we go. Ten things I’m still thankful for after Thanksgiving.

#10 - Being skinny.

I had to go to a store today. I absolutely had to. My brother’s birthday is tomorrow and I had not bought him anything yet. FYI: Never have a baby in late November, and don’t allow your parents to either. Most likely, you will end up having to buy birthday gifts for anyone who happens to be your child or your parents’ child. If that person is born in late November and you typically don’t buy people birthday gifts until the day before their birthday, you may end up having to go emergency shopping on Black Friday. But if you’re skinny, it’s not so bad. You can just turn sideways and squeeze between people quite easily, so when people in front of you forget there are other people in the world and walk as slowly as possible, you don’t end up waiting in line to get out the door.

#9 - Washing Machines.

When I got home from my long day of shopping, I realized that there were like 5 piles of clothes and towels in the hall waiting to be washed... at 5 pm. And of course, my whole family had come up with great excuses to not be home... “I have to buy Brent a birthday card”, “I’m going to...” oh wait, the other three didn’t tell me where they were. Nevermind. But either way, I was home alone with a ton of laundry to wash, and I was tired and hungry. If anyone thinks I would have whipped out my scrub board and hand washed all those clothes, they may as well donate their brain to science now because they obviously don’t use it. But since this is not the 1800s, I threw the clothes in the washer and went downstairs to eat. Unfortunately, I ended up emptying the dishwasher instead. Then I ate.

#8 - Leftovers.

What do you think I ate today? They’re amazing and you know it. If you cook a big enough turkey, you can eat it for another week or so. No cooking required. Pull it out of the fridge, scrape off the mold, and eat.

#7 - Email.

After I ate, i started working on my final project for my Nutrition class. It’s due on Tuesday, so there’s no more class until the day it’s due. I have to use this lame website to analyze my food intake for three days, and it’s not really making sense to me. The directions for the project say to analyze your food intake for each day using this website, but I could only figure out how to get the nutritional information for each food separately. So I ended up putting every food I ate for three days into the website and saving the pages with the nutritional info on them. Half of my computer screen is now covered by icons. I’m pretty sure I don’t really need to print that many pages. And all of that doesn’t even give me the information I need to fill out some other sheet that I have to turn in. So I stopped working and emailed my teacher. Then I watched TV and wrote a blog.

#6 - Dogs.

I’ve been feeding the neighbors’ cats for the last few days, and this is my opinion of them: they’re boring, they’re lazy, they have sharp claws, and you can’t punish them for using the bathroom in the house. Why would anyone want to own one? Get a dog.

#5 - Project Playlist.

Why would I buy music when I can listen to it on there for free? All I have to do is find a song I like, listen to it until I get sick of it, and then stop listening to it and be glad I didn’t waste my money on that boring song that I can’t believe I ever listened to. And plus it’s a great alternative around this time of year to the music playing on the radio... the Muppets’ 12 Days of Christmas, something that sounds like it should be on a black and white movie, and Christmas Shoes? No thank you.

#4 - Paring Knives.

My practical exam in HOS 101 is on Monday. Why did I remind myself of that? Anyway, I have to do all these crazy vegetable cuts that have to be exactly perfect. I normally do them all with my chef’s knife, but when you have to cut a perfect 1/16 inch cube, a chain saw is not the best tool to have. Not that I have a chain saw, but it would be really cool if I did. But I only have about 6 knives, and apparently I didn’t realize that any of the others worked... except the slicer... the one I mistook for a spatula. It works. Well in class this past Monday, one of my classmates reminded me that I could use my paring knife. Gasp.

#3 - Fences.

How many times can one dog really ask to go outside in an hour? My dog has probably asked that many times. In fact, my dad just opened the door to let her out again. But if I had to put a leash on her and walk outside with her every time she wanted to stand on the back porch and look around, I’m not sure which would kill me first -- hypothermia or exhaustion. But I would definitely be gone within the hour.

#2 - Arch Supports.

People with arches (aka people whose feet haven’t yet been amputated or otherwise removed) cannot comfortably wear Chucks while walking around for several hours--unless they have arch supports. Walking around with no arch supports for long periods of time gives me the mental image of a lot of pressure being put right on the center of my foot from the top, forcing my foot to break in half and collapse. That seriously does not make your feet feel better when they’re hurting. Disclaimer: Arch supports do not actually make walking for several hours a delightful experience. I’m sorry, but nothing will ever do that. My feet were still killing me by the time I got home.

#1 - Jesus.

Really, what is there to be thankful for if you don’t exist? And how can you exist if no one creates you? And what’s the point of existing if you’re not on your way to heaven? And if there’s not point in existing, why would you exist? And if you don’t exist, what is there to be thankful for? Probably not paring knives, arch supports, leftovers, dogs, email, fences, Project Playlist, washing machines, or being skinny. Probably definitely not anything.

There ya go. Happy after Thanksgiving.

Choklit Blog #26: "Chasing Shadows at Midnight" by Pillar

The song “Chasing Shadows at Midnight” by Pillar doesn’t seem that hard to figure out. It’s obviously about an old friend who betrayed the speaker and lied to him, right? Well that’s what I always thought, until I looked closer at the lyrics. (Actually, I think that’s what the original intention of the song was. I’ve never asked them, but whenever I get the chance to meet them, I’ll be sure to ask.)

The first verse of the song says “Next time I try / to cross your mind / Remind me to look both ways / so I don’t get hit by your lies” (1-4). It sounds like a somewhat clever stab at the person the song is about, which it is, but it also sort of conceals the fact that this song is (like “Death of Me”, the last song I wrote about) written to the speaker, from himself. The first part is easy to figure out... “Next time I try to cross your mind.” The only definition I have ever heard of crossing someone’s mind, is being thought of by that person. I don’t think he was literally talking about walking across some dude’s brain. But then again, I’ve never asked. In my opinion, that’s not what he’s saying. So “Next time you think of me, remind me to look both ways so I don’t get hit by your lies.” That doesn’t make much sense. I sat and stared at my computer screen for several minutes trying to come up with a way to reword that into English. Why would this apparent enemy remind the speaker not to get hit by his lies? And how would it really hurt the speaker if someone thought something bad about him? It wouldn’t... unless the person thinking ill of him, making some plan to harm him, or thinking incorrect things about him was... ready?... gasp... himself.

I need to interrupt myself for a minute here. I realize that this is basically the same exact thing I got out of “Death of Me.” I do not purposely only analyze songs about the good vs. evil battle in a person’s mind. There are just a lot of songs about that, and I didn’t even realize until I had already decided on this song that this was one of them. Anyway...

In those first few lines, the speaker is basically telling himself “Next time I think about myself, I need to stop lying to myself about myself before I do more damage than I’ve already done.” Then he tells himself, “You lacerate me with all of / these memories / And now I wear these scars out on my sleeve” (5-7). At one point, it was just an internal struggle between good and evil, but now it’s gone too far and people are starting to notice that he’s changing. But, as most people tend to do, he’s only remembering the good things he’s done and forgetting the bad, which is causing him to not want to change even though he knows he has to.

The chorus begins with “These broken hearts / are left with scars / because of your lies” (8-10). Now we can see that he has hurt other people and left them scarred because of his apparent current state of evil over good. He may be referring to the lies he told himself, or the lies he told other people. Most likely both. He continues with “And all this time / it feels like I’m / chasing shadows at midnight” (11-13). The concept of chasing shadows at midnight was a little lost on me at first. For several years, actually. I never thought about it very hard until the other day. I pictured someone outside at midnight running around after shadows. First off, it seems ridiculous. Why on earth would you chase a shadow? What are you gonna do, catch it? Eat it? Kill it? You can’t do anything to a shadow... unless you turn off all the lights. Oh, wait, there is no light at midnight! Unless you count the moon and stars... but are those really bright enough to cast many shadows? I’m pretty sure they’re not. (I’m not really sure where this story is set, but we’re gonna say there aren’t many streetlights around, because I really think streetlights would kind of ruin the concept a little.) So, chasing shadows at midnight is pointless and impossible. That’s what he feels like. Changing himself is pointless and impossible... if you remember what you read a minute ago about his memories being only of the good things he’s done in his current evil state, then it makes perfect sense. “I need to stop lying to myself. All I can remember are the good things I’ve done when somewhere deep down inside I know there’s something wrong. Everyone else can tell too. I’ve left so many people, including myself, scarred and broken hearted. Now I know I need to change, but it feels impossible and pointless because I keep on lying to myself.” If the band had just sung that, it wouldn’t have been nearly as interesting, but when you decipher it that’s what you get.

Now we come to verse two. “The days fade / and stars come out at night” (14-15). Days fade into night. Then stars come out. Wow, thanks so much for telling us. Are you implying that people who listen to your music aren’t smart enough to know that? It’s a hidden message... they’re trying to make America’s youth smarter. Thank goodness. It’s about time someone did it.

Not quite. It’s metaphorical... “the days fade” refers to the light in his life fading away slowly as evil and lies overtake him. It’s like John 3:19 says: “Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.” But then he says “stars come out at night.” Stars represent the little bit of light trying to stay in his life, fighting inside of him to take over, because as I mentioned earlier, he still knows right from wrong deep down inside. The next two lines say “And when the sun goes down, I know exactly what I’ll find” (16-17). He knows what will happen if he keeps going in the direction he’s headed. Obviously. I’m pretty sure that line didn’t need explaining, but I didn’t wanna just leave it out completely. That would be like removing it from the song, and I don’t think I have the authority to do that. So I’m not going to try. I don’t think it would work.

The verse ends with “Some things in this life / will never change / We both have apologies we need to exchange” (18-20). This part is a little confusing... and it’s is going to be hard to explain. I think. It sounds like he’s saying his two different sides (his good side and his evil side) need to apologize to each other. Why would his good side need to apologize to his evil side? Because even though it is a different side of himself, it is still part of him. It’s not necessarily that each side of himself needs to apologize to each other because they have done some kind of disservice to each other... well, actually, it is like that... because they’re the same person and he needs to apologize to himself. He couldn’t very well say “I’m only going to apologize to half of myself.” I mean I’m sure he could say that, but it would be stupid. He needs to apologize to himself for shutting out his good side (evil side apologizing to good side), and he needs to apologize to himself for falling for the lies from his evil human nature (good side apologizing to evil side).

I need to interrupt myself again. I realize that that probably makes very little or no sense. Sorry. It makes sense to me. I don’t know how else to explain it. Just think really hard about it. If you get to the point where it makes your head hurt and you still don’t get it, you probably aren’t going to and you may as well give up. Thinking about it more than that isn’t worth it. It’s probably not that important.

Only 8 lines left... they’re not that hard to figure out, but since I wrote about every other line in the song, I may as well keep going. “How could I let myself / fall into your lies / I only trusted you / with all of my life / Now I am stuck here / I’m trapped under ice / The only way out / is for me not to ask why” (21-28). Ok so he can’t believe he was so stupid, he obviously “trusted you with all of my life”, since he is himself, and he can’t change the past which would in turn change his current situation (“Now I’m am stuck here / I’m trapped under ice”). The only way to get past this is to move on and to not spend all his energy trying to figure out why he is in this situation, but to accept the fact that he is in this situation and needs to get out.

So if this song were written in plain, non-metaphorical, not-very-pretty English, I think it would go something like this: “I need to stop lying to myself before I do more damage than I’ve already done. I’ve been blocking out memories of the bad things I know I’ve done so I won’t feel the need to fix myself. Now everyone can tell that something is wrong with me. I’ve left so many people scarred because I’ve been lying to myself for so long and doing things I know were wrong. But all this time I’ve felt and still feel like it’s pointless and impossible to change myself. I know I’m on a bad path, but there’s still a little bit of good left in me. If I don’t grab onto it right now, things will only get worse. Things that have happened already can’t change, but it’s time to apologize to myself for all the lies. I can’t believe I let myself turn into this... I can’t believe I turned myself into this. Instead of trying to change the past and figure out why my life had to go this way, I need to just completely run away from the evil in my life.” This song almost seems to lose something when it’s explained in plain English. I’m sorry if I ruined this song for you. Go listen to it until you feel better. Goodbye.

Listen to "Chasing Shadows at Midnight": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5wPieXR4Hw

Choklit Blog #25: 10 Pros and Cons of Going to Culinary School at Age 15

I’m about to finish up my first semester at culinary school. I’ll also be 16 in a few months. Sounds awesome, right? I mean, I get a degree when most people my age are getting out of high school. It can be cool, yeah, but it also has it’s share of downsides. If you or someone you know is planning on going to college 3 years early, read on. If not... keep reading anyway. There are so many different aspects of the whole going-to-college-before-you-can-drive experience, and I think each one has at least one pro and one con. So here’s my top ten list:

Intelligence

Con: You haven’t really been around as long as everyone else, and therefore may lack some intelligence that they all have... most likely common sense. And any knowledge of anything from the 80s. This can make you feel young and stupid at times, but hey, you probably are, so suck it up and pretend you’re an adult. When everyone falls for it, you realize how smart they aren’t. It’s tons of fun, so embrace your ignorance. [I’m not sure this even counts as a con anymore, so suck it up and pretend it does...]

Pro: Even if you feel like the most clueless person in the room, you can rest assured that you are in fact smarter [“smart” as in book smart, of course] than... probably everyone at your school. At the age of 15, you got to where they got in... at least 18 years. Possibly 61. And then half of them drop out after the first week. Of course, if those are the people you’re hanging out with, you probably haven’t felt clueless yet.

Transportation

Pro: You don’t have to drive yourself to school. Your chauffeur [brother who goes to the same school] drives you. And since it’s his car, you don’t even have to pay for all the gas. And since he’s not a real chauffeur, you don’t even have to pay him.

Con: When your brother is at home sick, people will probably wonder why your mom drives you to school. And if your whole family is sick or busy, you have a pretty lame excuse for missing class. Good luck explaining to an instructor why you don’t have your license. Not to mention that when a classmate asks you in middle of class why your brother drives you to school everyday, then you respond that you don’t have a license, to which she responds “Well, what are you waiting for?”, you’ll end up having to explain your entire life story quickly and discreetly enough for the chef instructor not to notice that you’re talking. And when there are only 16 people in the room, that’s not easy.

Male/Female Interaction

Pro: College guys are better than high school guys. Obviously.

Con: When you come home and casually mention some random occurrence from your day that includes any of the following: walking to the vending machine down the hall with a male classmate, having your ponytail pulled by a male classmate, baking with a male partner in class, getting 5 class-related emails in one day from your male chef instructor, talking to a male classmate outside of class, talking to a male classmate in class, being asked by someone male for directions to the bookstore, or being complimented by anyone male... your mother will freak out.

Bonus Pro/Con [Or “Pron”]: Your mother’s facial expressions will likely be priceless. This could be a con, however, if you don’t happen to keep a camera on hand in the ready position at all times.

Bragging

Pro: You get major bragging rights. I mean, who goes to college at 15? Most people are pretty impressed. Sometimes too impressed. It’s not so cool when they randomly say things like “I can’t believe you’re only 15!” during class, causing a few unbelieving stares in your direction. Get ready to whip out your driver’s permit.

Con: Bragging makes you look conceited. Like a celebrity. And who ever wanted to look like a celebrity?

Excuses, Excuses

Pro: “I can’t date you... I’m 15.” “That’s cheating? I didn’t know... I’m only 15.” “I can’t work at the wine tasting... I’m 15.” “Gosh, I really don’t know what I’m doing since I’m only 15. Will you do it for me?” “I don’t have any money for you to borrow, because I don’t have a job, because I’m 15.” “But if you fail me, I’ll lose my scholarship. Then I can’t go to college and I might have to go back to high school, but my mom has already told me she would never let me be on a high school campus alone. Legally, I’m too young to not be enrolled in school, or I could be taken away from my parents and put in a foster home. So you pass me, or I go into foster care. You can’t expect my vegetable cuts to be perfect anyway... I’m 15.”

Con: “Your vegetable cuts are imperfect. It’s because you’re 15. Everyone who said you were too young for college was right.” “I can’t believe you cut yourself again. It’s because you’re 15. There should be a rule against enrolling here when you’re 15.” “Your cake is ugly like everyone else’s. It’s because you’re 15. Come back in 3 years and you can make a better one.” “You have plenty of time to go to college... because you’re only 15. I think I’ll fail you for fun.”

Work

Pro: While everyone else is working 30 hours a day to pay the rent on their apartment, you can study for your Sanitation national exam in your nice 5-bedroom house that you don’t have to pay a penny for. Then you can clean it...

Con: If you’re like me and would rather not tell everyone in class that you’re only 15, have fun explaining why you’ve never had a job before. “Um... my parents want me to focus on school, so they said I could live with them until I graduate.” No one will ever buy that. Even though it’s true. Since I don’t condone lying, I would recommend the next best thing... crying. “It’s not *sniff* my fault *sniff* that everyone thinks *sob* that they’re better *sob* than me be*sniff*cause they ALL *sob* HAVE *sob* BETTER *sniff* JOBS!!!!!” Cry your eyes out to divert attention from the subject at hand. And let me know how that goes.

Family

Pro: You still live with your family, so your mom can make your brothers do your chores for you while you do homework and study. Or vice versa... but then you get out of homework temporarily. So it’s still a pro. Unless of course you would rather take inventory of every food item in your school and let your brothers fold the towels.

Con: When you’ve repeatedly talked about your 2 older brothers, your only siblings, and then you ask if you can take home the cake you just made for your brother’s 17th birthday, you may get a few strange looks. And some comments. And questions. But when you respond by explaining in great detail the whole story of your entire life, everyone will learn not to ask you questions. So this could also be a pro... if your classmates will shut up long enough to let you talk about yourself for an hour.

Interests

Con: You’re more interested in changing your computer wallpaper to a different picture of your favorite band, writing blogs about school, analyzing songs, and sleeping than you are in reading your Nutrition book, knowing anything about fish, or hanging out at the bar. Goodbye class discussion.

Pro: Project 86 and Thousand Foot Krutch are cooler than oysters anyway. At least you have interesting interests. At least you don’t eat your interests.

Special Treatment

Pro: Your classmates will try [for about 5 minutes] to clean up their too-dirty-for-TV language a little, and they won’t show you pictures of the X-rated cake they baked.

Con: They will, however, feel the need to explain jokes to you, and then say “Dang, I’m corrupting your mind.”

Shiny Knives and Other Tools

Pro: Most people your age would get arrested for carrying a pocket knife around school, but for you, taking a knife to school is required. And not just a knife... a whole bag of them. Big knives. Big, shiny knives.

Con: You are the most likely person in the whole culinary department to scrape whipped cream off the edge of a straight spatula with your fingers, only to find that it’s actually a knife.

[NOTE: If this implied to you that I have used lame excuses, failed classes because of age, consider lack of interest in drinking bad, or am in danger of going into foster care, I can assure you that none of that is true. Drinking is stupid. If this implied to you that I cut myself on something I thought was a spatula, I can assure you that that is very true.]

Choklit Blog #24: "Death of Me" by Red

I figured it would probably be a good idea to post the first song analysis I ever wrote, since I've only written one, and I don't have anything else to post at the moment, or time to write anything new at 10 PM. I will probably never write another analysis this formal or this long for this blog...

The song “Death of Me” by the band Red may appear at first glance to address some sort of outward enemy, such as another person, object, or addiction. It seems to tell the story of a personal experience one of the band members might have had with a close friend or family member gone bad. While this may have been the original intention of the song, a much deeper meaning can be found with a little bit more thought. This song is a story that can be told from anyone’s point of view. The adversary in the song symbolizes the darker side of human nature, while the lyrics illustrate the inward struggle everyone faces in life.

The first verse of the song starts with the words “I should’ve seen all the signs all around me” (1). The speaker has been blinded by selfishness. He has become so preoccupied with himself that he does not notice the obvious signs that he is not living life the way he should be. The next line makes this even more clear. “But I was comfortable inside these wounds” (2). He is comfortable, so he stops paying attention to what is going on around him. Selfishness is one of the biggest traps people fall into in life and one of the hardest things for a person to recognize in himself, so it is addressed at the very beginning of the song.

The line “But I was comfortable inside these wounds” also reveals something else about the speaker (2). He has become lazy. When he reached this place in his life, he could feel the negative consequences of his actions and lifestyle. However, he was too lazy to get out of that bad place and now he has become comfortable in what used to hurt him. He has built up a tolerance to pain and now is unmotivated to move away from the cause of the pain. This shows how one bad characteristic leads to another, by demonstrating the connection between laziness and non-motivation.

The verse continues with “So go ahead and take another piece of me now” (3). Now that the speaker is unmotivated to do good, he has no reason to hold back from his bad side. His darker self has weakened him and is now free to take over his whole life slowly. The last line of the verse, “While we all bow down to you”, indicates that the person who once seemed like a good man is now practically worshipping this other side of himself and dragging others down with him (4).

When the chorus begins, so does the mental struggle. “You tear me down and then you pick me up” (5). One can see the battle going on between the speaker’s good side and his bad side. His bad side tears him down, like in verse one, then his good side picks him back up and the process continues. This is why in verse one he says “So go ahead and take another piece of me now” (3). This has been going on for a while, and each time he is torn down his bad side wins over another part of his life. He picks himself back up, but each time he becomes a little bit weaker and a little bit closer to falling apart completely.

The chorus goes on to say “You take it all and still it’s not enough” (6). This shows another bad characteristic. The selfishness has lead the speaker to want everything for himself, while the laziness and non-motivation have kept him from getting anything he really wants and needs. The ultimate result is greed. “You try to tell me you can heal me” (7). Since greed has taken over, the speaker’s bad side appears to offer the speaker a quick fix for all his problems, which he has gladly accepted before. Now he notices that he has been falling into a trap, and says “But I’m still bleeding, and you will be the death of me” (8-9). The speaker has come to the realization that he needs to change something in his life, and he will no longer give himself over to the dark.

The chorus flows right into verse two with the speaker asking “How can you help my affliction if you’re the sickness and not the cure?” (10-11) This is a sort of rhetorical question that the speaker uses to let his bad side know he has caught on to his plan. He then says that he will not take it anymore with the lines “Too long I’ve faked this addiction, another sacrifice to make us pure” (12-13). By “faked this addiction” he means that he has pretended to be stuck and unable to get away from the bad things that are overtaking him, when in reality he has just been too lazy to try (12). He knows he can get away, and this is what he is saying in the second line. He is sacrificing his comfort and his wants in order to save the good that is left of himself, and to purify what has been infected.

The first half of the bridge consists of one line repeated, changed only slightly each time, but not changed enough to affect the meaning. The repetition hints that this is a very important part of the song and of the struggle; a point the speaker wants to be sure to get across to the listener. It may, at first, look like the bad side is taking over again and making the speaker forget the rule that many people try to live by: forgive and forget. In this case, the speaker is using his un-forgiveness against his dark side. “I won’t forget, I cannot forget this. I won’t forget, I’ll never forget this. I won’t forget, I’ll never forget” (14-16). The speaker is letting his dark side know that he will always remember the important lesson he has learned and the things that have been revealed to him about the dark side. He will never again trust it to take over his life, and he will never again fall into it’s trap.

In the second half of the bridge, the speaker says “I know I can never prove this illusion, you aren’t the one that I thought you were” (17-18). He is now bringing up yet another characteristic of his bad side. He is directly addressing it as a liar. He is basically saying here that the illusion that his bad side could heal him, which he mentioned in the chorus, is so outrageous and unbelievable that he could never prove it and can not believe he once fell for it. He continues with “And so I learned to embrace this delusion, the line that separates us starts to blur” (19-20). He states that he learned to embrace it. He has to be taught to believe his bad side. It was not his original instinct, but over time he has learned to simply give in. He has been coming closer every day to becoming completely consumed by this.

The concluding stanza, the ending of the song, repeats a few lines from earlier parts of the song. The speaker repeats these lines for emphases, showing that they are the most important lines of the song. “And you will be the death of me, you will be the death of me. I won’t forget, I cannot forget this. And you will be the death of me” (21-24). He is emphasizing the words “you will be the death of me” to show the ultimate consequences of living on the dark side. It may seem fun for a while, but it will result in a truly unhappy life, a mental and emotional death, and eventually maybe an early physical death. The reason he sticks the “cannot forget this” line right in the middle of the other three lines is because he is noting that in order to avoid the death from his dark side, he has to remember this time in his life (23). If he forgets, he could fall into the same trap again, and he is once again emphasizing that line because he recognizes the extreme importance of it to his situation.

Because of the symbolism in this song, almost anyone can relate to it. Even if a person has not been in a situation as dark or as serious as the song seems to tell about, everyone must, at some point in life, decide to take control of themselves instead of being overtaken by selfishness, laziness, non-motivation, and greed. If this song had been written about a personal experience with another person, few people could relate to it and fully enjoy it. Because of the symbolism used, the song has been given a much greater meaning that can be applied to anyone’s life.


Listen to "Death of Me": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZiLwrFI5Fv8