In 1998, I had a cassette deck in my Dodge Neon and I played Usher’s album My Way so many times I burned through the tape. Twice.
Twenty-five years later and I’m still the same girl. Packed up and on a road trip to nowhere, for reasons known and unknown, fueled by endless playlists, bottomless iced coffees, and my dog in the back seat.
Usher hasn’t released an album lately, but Zack Bryan has. And while I don’t risk burning through my Spotify app the way I burned through a cassette tape, I’ve listened to this song so many times, that even my dog knows the lyrics.
And I wish I could stay for midday coffee
But I just can’t get this dreamin’ off me
If I could find me a place to rest my mind
But mama always said you’ll get there in good time
There’s some headlights burning down the highway
And I think that I may just hitch me a ride
‘Cause I’m a traveling man by trade, sir
We’re all runnin’ from the things inside
Dreamin’ as I’m steamin’ past miles of ground
Through the souls and hymnals that built these towns
Won’t stay too long and leave too soon
The best time for goin’g is when the going scares you.
Maybe it doesn’t make any sense for me to be out here hitching a ride on headlights, highways, and hymnals. But it keeps the dreaming on me. And it was, indeed, undoubtedly, the best time for going.
My way.