Echo Me In Circles

For a particular purpose, I'm doing this to a full extent.

:)

This is a song from one of my favourite rock band, Paramore. It is the track number 10 from the third album Brand New Eyes. I find it very relate-able.

The album cover.

From my personal point of view, I find this song is telling a story about how life can be difficult at times and people can be somewhat, lost.

It is like a ghost. A misguided ghost.

I'm going away for a while 

But I'll be back 

Don't try to follow me 

'Cause I'll return as soon as possible 

The song starts with the singer singing "I'm going away for a while", a very simple way of expressing her need to be alone by herself, probably due to overload of problems and stuffs. However, it is not like she is running away because she will be back. She insists of people to just let her be and don't need to worry about her. She will not be gone for long. She will return soon after. As soon as possible.

See, I'm trying to find my place 

But it might not be here where I feel safe 

Somehow, she doesn't feel right. Most of us do. We feel like we are of no significance in the group of people we are supposed to be part of. She tries to find herself a place where she can be herself and "feel safe" about it. It is most probably due to rejection and discrimination of differences that make people feel like they don't belong.

We all learn to make mistakes 

And run from them, from them 

With no direction 

We'll run from them, from them 

With no conviction 

As she sings "We all learn to make mistakes", the singer implies the thing everyone does as a human. Mistakes. The faulty thing or things that we do every single day, and how we run away from it, or them. When mistakes are meant to be corrected, the unhelpful society who only knows how to condemn and mock will just result in the problem being unresolved.

And this brings the next thing.

'Cause I'm just one of those ghosts 

Traveling endlessly 

Don't need no roads 

In fact, they follow me 

And we just go in circles 

Like a ghost, she just wanders around, aimlessly and endlessly. She doesn't need any roads because she doesn't even have a destination to begin with. Like, she's just lost. The problems, which might be the unresolved past mistakes and guilt, just follow her around. It doesn't stop there, as if going in circles.

And now I'm told that this is life 

That pain is just a simple compromise 

So we can get what we want out of it 

Somebody told her, this is how life works. Things are not always easy. People get hurt and they grow stronger. All the previous hardships exist to make who we are today. Whenever bad things happen in our life, after we struggle through it, we will emerge with new knowledge and experience to prepare for the next one. 

Would someone care to classify? 

Our broken hearts and twisted minds 

So I can find someone to rely on 

However, she still can't understand why things must be that way? Her heart is broken and her mind is twisted. She needs someone to really help her through this. Someone she can put her trust in. Someone she can rely on. It's not only her. It's all of us.

And run to them, to them 

Full speed ahead 

Oh, you are not useless 

We are just 

As she finds the right people, she wants to go and be with them. She wants to be there as fast as she can. She brings with her all the hopes she has. She also knows that nobody is insignificant. Everyone exists for a purpose. However, as how life can be cruel at times, some people end up being ghosts, like herself.

Misguided ghosts 

Traveling endlessly 

The ones we trusted the most 

Pushed us far away 

Because no matter what, people are always open to betrayal and treachery. She still travels endlessly and aimlessly like a ghost because those people she had her hope on was of no guarantee to be loyal. She is pushed away. Faraway.

And there's no one road 

We should not be the same 

But I'm just a ghost 

And still they echo me 

They echo me in circles

In the end, she knows she has to be what she has to be. Despite being a ghost, she needs to be a ghost of herself. She needs to be different from the people around her, who are constantly trying to bring her down. Or different from those who she thinks she can trust, but push her away after all. But even with all the realizations, she still have to carry the burden. She's a ghost anyway. And the the past come like echoes, encircling her.

***

I believe everyone feels the same way sometimes. That feeling of loneliness despite being in a crowd. A loud crowd is nothing but a deathly silence when the sounds they make are not from their heart.

We always want to be accepted and recognized even with our weaknesses. Therefore, we need trustworthy people, like family and friends, to give us supports and the strength that we can borrow.

However, people are people and that's how people do. Not all of them are going to be there for us, just like how we are not there for everyone. We might forgot our part as well.

As human, we should be supportive to each other. A trust that is given to us should be appreciated. Being a hypocrite should not be an option. A broken trust is sharper than a broken glass.

Being a ghost is not wrong, although it might be painful. As we live on, we will learn that even god's best creation are not that well so that we must in the end, hold on to God Himself.

And that might be the day when we can guide the ghost in us.

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