Not Ready to Back Down

The Dixie Chicks are my favorite female band of all time. They inspire me not only with their bittersweet songs of surviving love and embracing life but also with their resilient spirit and outspoken courage. Celebrities with social consciences are genuine gems among gaudy glitz but famous female musicians who speak up and stand up for their political views are even more precious.

I've loved them since the beginning. Their music carried me through my adolescence and continued to console and comfort me in my retarded adolescence. In high school, Wide Open Spaces embodied my fierce desire to escape my humid hometown and find a dream and life of my own. It gave me the courage to meet new faces and make those big mistakes. Cowboy Take Me Away described my ideal romance, a fanciful adventure with someone who longed for freedom, travel and wide open spaces as much as I did. I saw them perform live after they released the Home album in my senior year of high school. That was also the year I began my first big mistake, one necessary to make but still tinged with regrets for me. Landslide gave me the redemptive hope that I would gain some wisdom of experience and would be able to reflect on that first two years of college with acceptance ... eventually. Taking the Long Way came out at the end of my summer in Europe, before my junior year of college. That was the beginning of a very long journey, a long way around to rediscover who I was and what I wanted in life, after some very big mistakes. The Long Way Around is the anthem of my life right now, as I remind myeslf that everyone has their path in life and I will trailblaze my way fearlessly. I may never settle down but I will always find my way somehow.

The Dixie Chicks are my role models and I hope that their music and actions speak to other girls as well. We need more music filled with messages of standing up for what we believe in, surviving life and love with soaring strength and standing out against the chaos and the crowds. The Dixie Chicks' musical journey guides my journey and I eagerly await whatever comes next.