Hanging On
I remember being happy
I remember feeling young
What’s happening to those days
I feel like they’re all gone

You know, I remember all those cool spring mornings
Hanging out with my friends
Feeling good, like a teenager should
And laughing at something one of us just said
Now things are changing, and I don’t like it
But there’s no turning back
It’s so sad it had to end
But I guess—I guess those are the facts

Where did all those days go
What happened to what I knew
Was I left behind
Everyday, I think back to
I’ll never forget you
And the best days of my life

The bell rang, we’re off for break
There she was, standing in the crowd
Homecoming game, will you be my date
I can’t believe I’m driving and allowed

Summer break, three months of total rampage
Get on your bike, I’ll meet you at the park
You won’t believe who’s in my fourth period
Where’s my teacher’s reasoning
I’ll meet you here at lunch

Where did all those days go
What happened to what I knew
What happened to my life
I wish I could go back to
I’ll never forget you
In life

I’m on a very long bridge
But from the middle of it
Nothing seems far
But it only goes one way
Better get on my way
But for now, I’m hanging on

Story about Hanging On
I may have graduated a few years back, but I never really left high school.  When I was there, I knew I would one day miss it.  And when I left, I knew I was right.  This song is about looking back on all those everyday high school moments that we so often took for granted, and them all of a sudden meaning everything.  It’s also about the realization that youth is slipping away, and suddenly, becoming a “grown up” isn’t as far away and impossible as it once seemed.

Hanging On was a very easy song to write.  I finished it the same day I started—Wednesday, September 10, 1997.  I began writing it in the library at Saddleback College.  Whether a class was cancelled, I cancelled a class, or was just on break, I don’t remember.  But within the first 30 minutes, I had about half the song completed.  And later that day at home, I finished the other half.

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