Now that Halloween’s over, it’s a good time to switch gears. Meredith Brooks’ “Bitch” has been on my mind a lot lately, partially because it’s on the Orphan Black Soundtrack, and partially because talking about my college years a few weeks ago brought back some memories.

Senior year, advanced creative writing workshop: I don’t know why we did this, but for some reason, the class decided we’d each pick a song that we felt represented who we are as individuals, and our creative writing professor collected the songs and burnt them on a CD for each of us. When this “assignment” came down the pike, I scrambled for a song that would fit, because nothing immediately came to mind. If I wasn’t listening to my hard rock stuff, Evanescence, or U2 (and a friend and fellow writer in the class was definitely going to pick U2: she’s the one who got me addicted in the first place!), I was listening to classical music, because — hello, music major! So I wracked my brain for something when when a friend of mine suggested, “So I have an idea for you, but when you hear the title, you might be offended, but don’t be offended, because it’s a great song and it fits you.”

She sent me Meredith Brooks’ “Bitch.”

I’d never heard it before (musically speaking, I’m perpetually behind the times), but when I heard it, I knew she was right. I loved the song, and it fit all the contradictions I was dealing with at the time (and the first line is especially perfect for 22-year-old me: I was an angry, frustrated, and confused person during my last year of college). So I submitted it, and when the grand unveiling came in class, we had to guess which song belonged to whom. Memory is a fickle beast, so I could be wrong, but aside from hearing U2 and knowing exactly who selected it, I want to say the class rocked out to my song pick, but I can’t remember if they figured out the song was mine or not.

Either way, when I heard it the first time, it fit. When I hear it now, it really fits the girl I used to be, on the cusp of college graduation and that weird transition of knowing she’s definitely not a little girl anymore, but she still wants to be, sometimes.

Like it? Love it? Hate it? Sound off below!

Reminder: Music Monday is about the music, not the videos. Videos are just the medium I’m using to share the music, and some videos aren’t actually videos at all. Enjoy the songs, but if YouTube forces you to watch some sort of advertisement before you can get to the music, please be patient.