I wrote a song three years ago with the same title as this article. For those of you who find it familiar, it is a play on words from Tim Burton's “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” which is my favorite movie. I have seen the movie multiple times and it is one I never get tired of watching. Growing up, I felt a connection to the main character, Jack Skellington, as he tries to do something different in his life to give him a newfound sense of meaning from his every day/year mundane experiences. Every year before, during, and after Halloween Jack says he is tired of the same old thing and just being the Pumpkin King, and wants to do something different by taking over Christmas; unfortunately, his effort fails and causes chaos for his people, and the human world, resulting in “The Nightmare Before Christmas.” The movie itself is based on a poem producer Tim Burton wrote from the title. He wrote "The Nightmare before Christmas," and It inspired me to write "The Dream Before Halloween."
This is one of my favorite set of lyrics I have written over my time. I wrote them in 2008 when I was in eighth grade as a way of shorting out my emotions. I also enjoy the title I came up with, as it has become one of my favorite titles, partially because of the "Nightmare Before Christmas" inspiration. I'm usually out of it and agitated anyway, but there is something about October that makes it worse. All I want to do is be alone, sleep and not do a damn thing. It’s a weird thing to notice about yourself. I'm taking this time to talk about this song because it has a meaning behind it.
I wrote this song because ever since my freshman year of high school, it seems that around the time autumn hits and it becomes October, things in my life just seem to take a down hit. It's nothing big, usually, but for some reason, I just become a tad bit more apathetic and agitated than I usually am. I just end up becoming a little more separated from the world. I don’t know exactly why this happens, but it seems that around this time, especially as it is closer to Devil's Night and Halloween, my brain just shuts off and I slug through the month in a depression. It’s as if my body and mind know it is October and decides that it’s time to hibernate or something until the month ends, kind of like my own version of “Wake Me Up When September Ends” by Green Day. I just try to make it through the month and get to November where I get what I call an “October Hangover," where these things continue for a while, then I level out back to my normal self, which is just more active than the October me.
I’m not sure if this makes sense to anyone, but it’s something I experience, and I wanted to share this to see if anyone else may have something like this happening in their lives where a certain time of the year comes around and you’re just like “yeah, can I just not do this month?” I don’t know if anyone can relate to this, but if you do, then you aren’t alone.
This is just all part of my askew look on the world and is something that’s been on my mind for a few years, which is why I wrote the song and why im talking about it now-- something to get out my head and see if it resonates with anyone.
