Meaning Behind My Favorite Song: Paula Cole's Me

Paula Cole is a Massachusetts-born singer who began her singing career with her 1994 debut album, "Harbringer." In 1996, she recorded "This Fire." This second album went double platinum and sold more than 2 million copies in the United States.

Though this album is known for the songs "Where Have All the Cowboys Gone?" and "I Don't Want to Wait," "Me" is a simplistic piece that seems to touch on many of the worries we all seem to hold inside ourselves.

"I am not the person who is singing
I am the silent one inside
I am not the one who laughs at people's jokes
I just pacify their egos
I am not my house, my car, my songs
They are only just stops along my way
I am like the winter
I'm a dark cold female
With a golden ring of wisdom in my cave"

The singer acknowledges with this passage that she is not the person she seems to be on the outside. On the outside, she is successful and she is boisterous. But her inner self is something wholly different. The things she owns do not define her, for they are only additions to that outside self of hers.

"And it is me who is my enemy
Me who beats me up
Me who makes the monsters
Me who strips my confidence"

At times, we can all be our own worst enemy. Fear of failure, self-loathing and doubt of our decisions can make us be harder on ourselves than anyone else could possibly be. We have a window of view into ourselves that no one else can have and this leaves us harshly critical of our choices, thoughts and actions. We want to be ourselves and yet, at the same time, we want to please others.

"I am carrying my voice
I am carrying my heart
I am carrying my rhythm
I am carrying my prayers
But you can't kill my spirit
It's soaring and it's strong
Like a mountain
I'll go on and on
But when my wings are folded
The brightly colored moth
Blends into the dirt into the ground"

Inside of all of us, we carry out own hopes, fears, joys and sorrows. Often we do not give ourselves credit enough for our own strengths and the strength of our spirit. And yet, it's often than being true to that spirit , being ourselves and opening that spirit within us for all to see on the outside leads to us not being so 'bright' as we once were in the public's eye. Instead, in being true to ourselves, we must sacrifice that which makes us so popular in that persona we show on the ourside.

"And it's me who's too weak
And it's me who's too shy
To ask for the thing i love
And it's me who's too weak
And it's me who's too shy
To ask for the thing i love
That I love"

We often keep our feelings hidden and our emotions in check for fear of doing something "inappropriate". In our harsh criticisms of ourself, our own self-value is low. And thus when it comes to reaching for something we really want, we come to believe we are not worthy of it. We are too weak and shy, fearful of what may happen and who we may hurt, to try. And so, often, our dreams and hopes pass us by.

"I am walking on the bridge
I am over the water
And I'm scared as hell
But I know there's something better
Yes I know there's something
Yes I know, i know, yes i know "

Reaching and trying for the things we want to achieve can be frightening and it takes a great deal of emotional strength to make it over that gulf between ourselves and what we are after. We have to hold on to the thought that what we want is just over that river of our own fears and self-doubts and that if we try, if we struggle through this fear, we can reach that other side.

In conclusion, what does "Me" mean to me? "Me" hits at the heart of my experience with life. Second-guessing myself in nearly every decision and striving so hard to do the 'right' thing, never really known what it is. There are some gulfs within myself that I have only been able to look at, standing on the other side of that metaphorical bank. I stand at an crossing with them. Either I can try and make it through my fears, struggle and reach for what lies on the other shore - or I can let them go, burn that bridge and never try.

You have to decide for yourself what bridges are worth crossing and what ones you want to burn.