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Draw a bird. Name ten things you’re looking forward to. Write about who or what or where is home to you... Scribbled Pleas is a book of lyrics by singer-songwriter Mia Stegner, filled with unique prompts designed to inspire creative expression and self-reflection. A storyteller at heart, author Mia Stegner views songwriting as an avenue to ask questions, seek answers, and ponder both personal and collective pieces of the human experience. Learn more at www.MiaStegner.com
wrote this on instagram when i shared it: "Fun fact: I played this song for my grandma the other day and when it got to the line about winged eyeliner, she made a face and shook her head at me. 😂
This song is basically a long-winded recount of my frustrations surrounding making life decisions, and an exploration of some of my options. My ideal or potential paths have become ever so slightly clearer since writing the song, even though my future is still overwhelmingly uncertain.
At the time when I wrote this, I had yet to make a college decision. I had some ideas about what I wanted to pursue, but I had just as many doubts. I was stuck in a hopeless spiral of indecisiveness, and I wanted answers.
Basically as soon as we can talk, we’re asked who we want to be. Despite occasional words of wisdom about how we have plenty of time to figure it out, there’s pressure everywhere, both internal and external (the first line I wrote was this: ‘Some say I don’t have to make a choice, but inside my head there’s this little voice’). All the success stories in a given field seem to be from people who were sure of themselves, who knew what they wanted to do and stuck with it. I felt like to get anything, or to be anyone, you had to know what you wanted, and that was intimidating.
I could see myself pursuing countless careers or futures, but I had no idea where each of those paths would take me, and that felt like information I needed to have in order to make a good decision. But none of us can see that far into the future. No one can do everything.
The song ends with a sort of call-to-action about living in the moment and embracing the unknown. That’s something I’m still trying to do. One of my favorite quotes is Rainer Maria Rilke’s ‘Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves…’ I think my next tattoo might be a question mark. But who knows?"
lyrics
I want to move to the city and dye my hair blue, get a couple small tattoos
I want to stay here and have six kids, buy a lifetime of sticky notes and glue
I want to travel the world with my hair in pig tails, get good at taking pictures and painting my nails
I can't do it all, and that makes me feel small
I can't pick just one. This is my life
The limit is beyond the sun, so forget the sky
I want to spend my weekends on a couch with my laptop
Blasting music with my hair in a bun, getting work done
Or sitting with a book on the beach in the sun
Cooking in the kitchen with my spouse with my hair in braids
Playing with my kids, working from home, getting paid
At a set with my hair curled, being happy, being free
Making things that I'm proud of, things that people will see
I can't do it all, and that makes me feel small
I can't pick just one. This is my life
The limit is beyond the sun, so forget the sky
I want to live with several roommates in a small place in LA
Or rent a studio apartment in New York, who can say?
I want a house with picket fences, overlooking grassy plains;
I want a house with glass walls on a cliff, overlooking crashing waves
I can't do it all, and that makes me feel small
I can't pick just one. This is my life
The limit is beyond the sun, so forget the sky
I want to meet an artsy introvert
An extroverted charming chap
Do I have to fall in love at all?
Can I please just be left alone with my seven cats
I want to wear crop tops and glasses; winged eyeliner and skirts;
Boots and hoodies please, and the same old sweatshirt;
Jean shorts, colored tights, sunglasses when the lights are too bright
A screenwriter, a filmmaker, an activist;
A journalist, a novelist, a mom
I’ll be a Broadway singer; I’ll forever stay a teenager
I’ll major in comedic arts, gender studies, math
When I think of my future, I imagine these paths
I assume everything will happen, but time is slipping way too fast
It’s time to decide on a person to be, find this thing, I call passion, this thing I call me
Some say I don’t have to make a choice, but inside my head there’s this little voice
Whispering: If you don’t, you will be nowhere in ten years
When and how will I die? Who will be there? Will they cry?
What will I take with me? What will I leave behind?
I can't do it all, and that makes me feel small
We don’t know if we can follow through
But we know what we have to do:
Live in the question, and not in our minds;
Keep taking steps and see what we find;
Be in the moment and not in our heads;
Take one step after another, keep getting out of bed;
Spend time in the day, and not in our thoughts;
Befriend the fears, that we once fought
I want to move to the city and dye my hair blue, get a couple small tattoos
I want to stay here and have six kids, buy a lifetime of sticky notes and glue
I want to travel the world with my hair in pig tails, get good at taking pictures and painting my nails
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