This cannot really be heard in the lyrics, but the minor key of the near-tango that comprises the song is reminiscent of the feelings of intense passions unfulfilled, in many different areas of life. From the age of about eleven to fourteen or fifteen, I felt as though I had do much to bring to the world, but I couldn't really figure out how to do it. The incessant percussion, dark harmonies, and smooth melody of "Sway" are somewhat like the bittersweet notion of feeling as though one could possibly touch greatness, yet being frustrated time and time again in the attempt to actually reach out and touch it. I have come to enjoy this frustration more now, but at the time it was maddening. I thought I had found my way of achieving greatness during my rebellious phase, which began when I was sometime in my fifteenth year. "We're Not Going to Take it," that purposefully cliche Twisted Sister anthem that remains a perennial favorite of teenage music fans everywhere is the perfect accompaniment to this part of my life. I rejected authority figures out of hand, without really taking the time to hear what these individuals were trying to say (though I still maintain that some of them were complete idiots). The...

It is bold, brash, in your face, and simply enjoys being so without any contrivance, and this is what I at least thought I was emulating for a time.
At this point in my life, however, I have become ready to more seriously attend the world and those willing to share their experience of it with me. I was recently introduced to Ravel's "Bolero," and the contemplative and continuously anticipatory nature of this song seems very fitting to my life right now. It promises of things to come, yet requires patience and persistence in order to get there. This song is simply a reminder of what it is to be an adult.

This assignment has made me see how much I have truly changed, without feeling like I've truly ever been a "different person" than I am now -- I've simply collected a lot of songs along the way. The varying moods and perspectives I have gone through in my life are illustrated by the music I listened to then and now, and my tastes are still growing. As I discover who I am more and more completely, I expect the soundtrack of my life to expand, as well.