Way back in middle school, my friends and I thought it would be fun to be songwriters. None of us were very good at it, and they quickly moved on to other things, but I kept trying. In high school, I taught myself how to play guitar, thinking it would help me write better songs. It didn’t, and I never really got very good at playing, either. But when I took my first online college course — a Physics class with a teacher who insisted on writing her own tests and whose first language wasn’t English — strumming the few chords I knew was one of the few things that relieved my stress.

I went through phases where I’d play a lot, then put my guitar away for years. I picked it back up at the beginning of the pandemic but was recently in another one of my years long sabbatical. A few days ago, while packing and preparing for a move, I picked it up and played three chords, then put it away. But just in those three chords all of the anxiety I didn’t realize I was carrying melted away.

As I continued putting my life into boxes the lyrics to this song started to form. Its melancholy is a reflection of how I’m feeling two months in, mostly because my body is t-i-r-e-d, but I’m still feeling hopeful so I hope some of that comes through, too. The unity amongst the unions and the support across the board has kept me from ever feeling discouraged, and if there’s one thing from this strike that I think should be immortalized and live on, it’s the solidarity.

This is usually the part where I apologize for being less than perfect, but, honestly, it’s turned out pretty okay, and that’s a habit I need to get over anyway.

Lyrics

Just another day on the line
Telling jokes, counting steps just to pass the time
And I feel there’s something special in the air right now
Can you feel it?
It might take a minute.

They put up a fight, we’re pressing on
Day-by-day we’re wearing them down but those days are long
We’re all in this together and it’s how we’ll pull through
You and me, me and you, yeah I got you, boo

It’s a long picket summer
Rolling on like thunder
But after the rain it smells like victory

Let’s go another day on the line
Tearing down corporate greed and we’re feeling fine
Every step we take reminds us how much we are worth
And we’re stepping side-by-side
With your union next to mine
Together our needs align
And that’s how we’ll win