Catch my Breath

Because today my Best Friend joins me in the wonderful age of 23 I was inspired to write about the song that we both agreed would be a great anthem to our year! We definitely used up Taylor Swift's song "22" as much as we possibly could before we both turned 23, and now we are on to a new song, a new anthem that describes exactly where we are...Kelly Clarkson's "Catch My Breath"

This is one of those songs that we heard and felt like she was singing the lyrics to our lives. And because I'm so analytical when it comes to song lyrics I wanted to go over the song (most of the lyrics) and why I love them so much.

 "I don't wanna be left behind
Distance was a friend of mine"
I feel like this song is one that describes our twenties to where we are now, because there were times in the first couple years when we had been hurt, hurt so badly that we didn't really open ourselves to anybody but each other. We both knew that we wanted to feel better, wanted to just be better and not sit on the sidelines.

"Catching breath in a web of lies"
When we would feel like we were making progress in our time trying to scrape out of the dark places we were in, there would be moments that would come up about times we'd be lied to and the truth came out, so just when we thought we were going to be on the way to getting better, we'd end up stepping back two of three steps.

"I've spent most of my life
Riding waves, playing acrobat
Shadowboxing the other half"
As we started growing up we started realizing that we ourselves were our own worst enemies, not the girls who talked bad about us, or the boys who broke our hearts. We were our own biggest critics, it was easy for each of us to tell the other person that they were too hard on themselves, but it was too hard to look in the mirror and do the same for ourselves.

"Catching my breath, letting it go, turning my cheek for the sake of the show"
The last part of that lyric about turning my cheek was one that we both were all too familiar with. We didn't fight back, we didn't speak up during certain times because we didn't want to cause a scene or we felt like we couldn't say the things we wanted to say.

"Now that you know, this is my life, I won't be told it's supposed to be right"
We took our lives back from all the things holding us back all the things that we thought we would do because they were the "right thing" we did them for the wrong reasons. We didn't do them for ourselves, we did them for others.

"Catch my breath, no one can hold me back, I ain't got time for that"
This last year especially we really started understanding who we were and realized that we didn't need to have a man in our lives to make us be the best version of ourselves. Our past wasn't defining us it was only shaping us and it would no longer stand in the way of our dreams.

 "it's all so simple now"
Probably the best lyric in this entire song, we OVER ANALYZED everything about our lives, (and yes I do realizing I am over analyzing this song) but what we did was plan and worry and stir around waiting for something to happen. Life is SIMPLE. There is no need to worry about all the stuff that may or may never happen, and it is simple because we have God that is here to help us every step of the way.

"Heavy heart, now a weightless cloud"
We both have never been in better places in our lives, we don't carry around the heartache and the pain that our hearts have been put through. We have allowed ourselves to just be HAPPY. Happy in where we are, we aren't making plans and we aren't talking about our past like we used to.

"Making time for the ones that count"
It has been said that when you are in your twenties it is the time when you need to be the most selfish, and both of us have relished in our selfish moments, and having those moments when we do indulge to make ourselves happy are important moments. But we also realized that the people surrounding us who are so loving and supportive are the ones that we need to be spending our time with. We don't need to be wasting it on people who don't want to make time to spend with us.

"Laughing hard with the windows down"
Laughing is one of our favorite things to do, and we need to do it more often, and Lauren is known to cry while she is doing it and those are the tears that we like to shed. Let the windows down, don't worry about your hair, don't worry about anything, just let the world in!

Keeping faith kinda comes around
Another lyric directly spoken to our hearts, there were moments when we lost our faith, there were moments when our relationship with God wasn't where it should be. We brought it back, keeping the faith that one day we would feel better, one day we would be happy EVERY day and truly be happy, one day we'd be back on the track we wanted to with God and trusting in His plans for us.

"You helped me see
The beauty in everything"
This line is how I feel about our friendship, both of us ended up on the same track of happy right around the same time and through that process we started counting our blessings and not our troubles and spending time talking about the things that made us happy in the day and not the things that made us sad. We talked it through and cried it through and laughed it through and now here we are, seeing the beauty in the world and loving life.

It is all so simple now. 23 will be our year to use this song to realize how far we've come and live in every moment to the fullest. To remind ourselves that there is beauty in the world and that we can let the windows down. We aren't burdened by our past we are stronger for it. We will no longer be the ones who get pushed over and have our kindness used against us. We will be the strong women of God who pursue the things in life that make Him happy and us happy. Because the rest of the garbage, "there ain't no time for that!"