Songsters ii: Sitting on Top of the World

I'm sitting on top of the world.

Sunday October 22nd was my birthday. I had just turned 24. I got up early to get ready for 10 am mass to thank God for another year of life. I put on a lovely read dress that I saved for important occasions, did my make up and I was of to mass, feeling quite elated and special.

I was sitting on top of the world.

On the bus ride back home from church I stopped and got a seafood pad thai meal that I had saved up for at a Thai restaurant not to far from my apartment. I had a quite meal alone in the restaurant in my beautiful red dress. One of the best meals I have had at Berkeley. At the end I bought a slice of chocolate cake, got a candle and lit it, and in the quite, blew it out and wished for prosperity.

I was sitting on top of the world.

Then I came home and got ready to return to my regular schedule and get back to doing schoolwork. However before I changed out of my red dress I opened my computer and saw the YouTube page opened for Bob Dylan's version of Sitting on Top of the World. I had opened it the night before when I was listening to the music for this weeks post. I listened to it and thought how perfect this song was for that moment. Although the song was written from a mans perspective I felt like I identified with it very much. The singer was alone, single yet content. In that moment I understood those feeling. When I chose to move to California to attend Berkeley my boyfriend and I broke up, neither wanting to deal with the long distance and while still adjusting to life in America I often find myself alone, which was the way I spent my birthday. However, on that day, Sunday October 22, 2017, I was alone yet happy.

 I was sitting on top of the world.

Filled with such confidence I decided in that moment that a self portrait on my birthday that encompassed this feeling would be the best post to represent this song for me. So I chose the perfect spot on my patio where the sun was casting interesting shadows yet still quite glaring in order to create this photo. I then chose to edit it further on Photoshop as to abstract it some more so it became less about the surroundings and color but more about my expression in order to get the feeling across. I loved it and think I will frame it. Every time I look on it I remember that feeling of contentment and confidence.

I was truly sitting on top of the world.