It’s my life!
One of my all-time favourite songs is It’s my life by Bon Jovi. This is how it opens and apologies to Mr Jon and his band it I haven’t got the lyrics down pat but this is what I hear when I listen to it:
“This ain’t a song for the broken hearted, a silent prayer for faith departed. I ain’t just going to be a face in the crowd - you’re going to hear my voice as I shout when out loud. It’s my life and it’s now or never. i ain’t going to live forever. I just want to live because I’m alive. It’s my life, my heart is like an open highway. Like Frank I can say I did it my way.”
This is my theme song, this is my jam. When I hear it on my car radio I crank up the volume and belt it out. If I’m at a party or a festival, and this song gets onto the soundwaves, I am the first person to get up and start dancing - even if there’s no one dancing and people are looking at me quite strangely., or so I think.
The song is all about, as far as I read into it, it’s all about having the courage to stand up for who you are and express yourself in however manner that you want to. Over the weeekend, I heard a story. It was all about how a girl was bullied by her peers in school just because she was different. She wore clothes different to what was in fashion. She listened to music that wasn’t on the Billboard Top 100 - or whatever it was called. This was when she was in high school but what made me look up to her even more was the fact that she didn’t bow down to peer pressure or become so overwhelmed by the bullies that she disssolved into a puddle. No, she stood up for herself and fought back. Not in a way that she would be arrested and thrown in jail but using her words to deliver expertly retorts against these bullies. She conftinues to exude this spirit and she is one of my role models today.
I think it wasn’t realised, back in the 80s and 90s, how much power words can have on a person. With merely a sentence you could reduce someone to tears, make them doubt their self-worth. I mean even the vocabulary that people employed was the first thing that came into their heads - they didn’t realise the connotations that they held. For example:
“Cut your hair - when you have longer hair you always look like a slob.” (negative)
vs
“You have such healthy-looking hair. Why don’t you try shaping it because I think that it would really suit you.” (positive)
Both of these sentences convey the same meaning but the first one makes the person with the longer hair feel absolutely terrible about themselves and willl probably go to the hairdresser in a huff, not because they want to but because they feel that they have to. The second version makes the person feel very good about themselves and they will look forward to going to the hairdresser, excited to see the style that is created for them.
So live your life in a way that fulfils you but make sure that your words don’t cause harm to others.