Samantha, the rest is still unwritten

Here we were underclassmen in college, but we were doing the right thing: looking up toward the future.

I remember when we were around seven or eight years old, we used to sing a lot. Before we were writing songs and performing for our families, we would bounce around our respective homes jamming out to a specific album. Our tastes were respectable. We liked meaning. And that was a trend that would continue into adulthood.

It was 2004 and Natasha Bedingfield had come on the scene, and you were really taken with her debut album “Unwritten.” There’s a track called “Size Matters” that you’d sing. You’d vocalize — “da da da da da da ba da da…” and you’d dance to the hi-hat R&B beat in “These Words.” Then there was the title track, “Unwritten.” The song was everywhere. I never watched “The Hills,” but it was the show’s theme. It was plastered in teen movies in 2005. It was the motivational anthem in Michelle Trachtenberg's “Ice Princess” and “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.”

We both loved this song, but you reveled in it, and rightly so. Apparently, you weren’t the only one, and you were onto something.

Now this song is 15 years old, and so does that mean we are that old? Well, I guess it does. But why bring it back? And why now? Looking back at the lyrics, which I’ve embedded below, “Unwritten” is all about the process and trusting it. If there’s something you want, it’s up to you to take the strides necessary to make it a reality.

In a way, “Unwritten” is more relevant for us personally 15 years later. The second verse is my personal favorite.

I break tradition
Sometimes my tries, are outside the lines
We’ve been conditioned to not make mistakes
But I can’t live that way, no

Spotify has characterized this song in a bunch of sentimental and kitschy or campy ways. Just to name a few playlists, “Unwritten” graces Spotify on BuzzFeed’s Pick Me Up Playlist, 31 Songs That Just Plain Make You Feel Good on Spotify, Guilty Pleasures on Spotify and “Life Sucks”.

Mini golf and color coordination, two ideas that are both sentimental and campy, but we love it anyway.

(Now here’s the deal with guilty pleasures. I’ve come to a grand realization that they indeed don’t exist. If you love something, own it. And you always owned it with this one. )

Also, there are folks out there that know this song defined a generation of people. So Christina Aguilera's “Ain’t No Other Man” beat “Unwritten” for Grammy gold. While that is a great song, was it really everywhere and did it inspire people like “Unwritten”?

I don’t have the data to prove anything of that sort, but my own judgment tells me maybe not. Bedingfield has spoken about how commercialized “Unwritten” has become. But once again, she finds meaning in every Pantene Ad and movie the song has appeared in. In her words, it’s “proof” that her penned lyrics and melodies are “connecting with themes and people across the spectrum.” #givenatashaagrammyforunwritten

But alas, that could be possible because as it turns out the song has been revived. Not only by us and by random Twitter users but by Nat herself. “The Hills,” that reality show I was yacking about before, is coming back for a reboot. So Bedingfield was a bit sneaky. She decided if the show is rebooted, then why can’t “Unwritten” be as well. Enter the 2019 Remix.

“Doing a remix has been really fun,” she said. “A lot of times with remixes, people take the original vocals and then just change the beats and chords around it — I wanted to re-sing it. I wanted to take where I’m at now and kind of give it a new spin.”

She worked with legendary producer Linda Perry on this remix. And at first, I didn’t love it, but let me just say, it’s a grower and overall I trust Perry. “What I love about it, it’s like I believe every word,” Perry said in the studio.

Something that also shifts in this new recording is Bedingfield sings the “can’t read my mind” in her native British accent.

So, as a gift to you on your graduation, I’ve done a little recording. I don’t know how good it is, but I wanted to remind you of our youth. In these ever so complicated times, it’s hard to slow down and remember what really matters. Where do we find the meaning in life that we used to when those around us can be so shallow?

But what isn’t complicated, however, is our bond as cousins, friends, and confidants. Our memories shape us and move us forward.

Here we are at the MET when we saw the Manus x Machina fashion exhibit and then had that brilliant Italian food. I remember that we waited for my mother and Halle to fly through the same exhibit.

It’s a fun little mashup of the OG and the remix.

Also, I did some research as I do, and I learned that “Unwritten” was written about Bedingfield’s younger brother. He was 14-years-old and was already being asked about who he wanted to be. As we’ve spoken at length about, people have no boundaries and ask questions that are inconsiderate and thoughtless.

In our beach-themed sweatshirts, we still had ambitions. We wanted to watch the sunrise, and we did it.

But remember that when we were eight, anything felt possible. We could write songs. We could choreograph dance routines. We could make everyone laugh including ourselves. A lot of people say that life ends when you graduate from college. But to be honest, Natasha is the one who really knows life’s gospel. Anything is still possible. Life can be equivocal and scary, but I’m blessed that we still have each other.

If anything it’s after college when your book begins.

Staring at a blank page might be a little daunting,

but no one else, no one else, can dictate what’s next.

The pen is in your hands.

So I can’t wait to see you release your inhibitions.

Let me know when you feel it on your skin.