Saying goodbye with a series of songs

Today I looked up a million ways on how to say goodbye. Nothing seemed adequate for this moment. For the past year, I’ve been writing a column once a month for the Chico E-R and now I’m writing what will be my last column.

As I sit here trying to come up with the right words to describe just how thankful I am, I’m at a loss.

The internet said to write a card or give a goodbye gift, but I can’t really do that here can I? I’ve had my fair share of goodbyes between my sister and uncle passing away, my best friends in high school moving out of the city, my best friend in college moving to Ohio and so many other small moments where we all have to say goodbyes for the time being.

My first year of college, when I was dreadfully missing all of my close friends from the Bay Area, I came up with the novel idea of giving all of my close friends a burned, mix-tape CD.

I added narration in between every song explaining why each song reminded me of that person.

I know it’s 2020 and most people don’t even use CDs anymore, but since I’m having trouble writing how I feel, I thought I could make a small playlist here, as an ode to the other North State Voices columnists and our readers.

“All I Really Want To Do” — Bob Dylan. The first song on this playlist is of course, a Bob Dylan song. Probably the only consistent thing about my 2020 was my brand new obsession with the illustrious Dylan. In “All I Really Want To Do” Dylan talks about the simplicity of just wanting to be someone’s friend. When I applied to be a columnist I felt the same way. I told myself that I didn’t care about the work load or the complications of already having six classes and a job. All I wanted to do was be a columnist for a newspaper.

“Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts.” I promise there will be more than just Bob Dylan songs on this playlist! I couldn’t resist adding one more song for my editor-in- chief,

Mike Wolcott. The only person I know who loves Bob Dylan more than me. I remember in a previous column I mention Dylan and in response Wolcott sent me his top 10 favorite Dylan albums in order. He specifically mentioned this song off of “Blood on the Tracks” and ever since that email, all I can think about when I hear this song is Mike Wolcott.

“Shattered,” The Rolling Stones. At a time where I felt like no one was reading my columns and my columns didn’t matter, I wrote about my ambitions of becoming a successful journalist, to the track of “Shattered.” Hurriedly writing it in a Starbucks lobby, I honestly thought my column was so bad that Wolcott would reject it, but in a surprising turn of events, it became my most-read column. Wolcott told me it received some of the highest views on the website and it changed the way I wrote forever. Now I know some people actually do enjoy my writing!

These next songs are dedicated to the three other North State Voices columnists I wrote alongside this past year. I have no idea what each columnist’s favorite musician is, so I chose songs that popped in my head when first meeting my fellow writers.

“Vampire” — Neil Young (Brian Faith). One word that comes to mind when writing about Brian Faith is “cool.” I’ve only met Faith once, but in the short time we had together, I could tell he was a man of many stories that didn’t bother to boast because he knew he didn’t need to. Neil Young’s cool guy guitar riffs in “Vampire” is exactly what I would imagine Faith’s theme song to sound like.

“Truckin’ ” — Grateful Dead (Bonnie Chapman). A woman who needs no introduction is

Bonnie Chapman. Immersed in the community and always looking to go somewhere new, “Truckin’” seemed to be the perfect song. Sweet and spunky, Chapman is the neighbor you never knew you needed. I’m so glad I got to meet her.

“Blossom” — James Taylor (Morgan Dietz). Morgan Dietz has an air about her that is one of genuine kindness and thoughtfulness. She never goes past exactly 600 words in her columns and still manages to convey exactly what she needs to say. Taylor’s “Blossom” is a sweet song that I think captures the likeliness of Dietz’s pure nature as a writer and person.

“Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright.” Of course I had to end with a Dylan song. Being my most listened to song in 2020, I think “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright” says it all.

Thank you for taking the time to read everything I’ve had to say in the past year. I hope this small playlist shows how much I’ve truly cherished this experience.

(To use the Spotify QR code, just open the Spotify app and in the search bar press on the camera and scan the code to listen.)