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Life in the Rearview Mirror

from Life in the Rearview Mirror by Craig Manning

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lyrics

The day I finished college
I just got into my car
Set the GPS to some new city
And drove

It was the start of a new summer
Though it wasn't even May
And I was heading off toward some new life
That I had never seen

I was moving away
From the only world
That I had ever known
I was moving off to Illinois
To find some new dream
Moving off to share a life with you

Jimmy Eat World on the CD player
All my bags in the backseat
Stacked so damn high I couldn't see
Anything behind me

See, I couldn't use the trunk 'cause it was flooded
From the time that I got hit
Left the backside of the car all dented
And a leak to let rain get in

So all the mirror is showing me
Is suitcases and reams
Of papers from the classes I just finished
Got my records in a box on the floor
And my guitar stacked on top
Like some troubadour just heading out to Nashville
And singin' a song...

About how I'm driving alone
Down this Michigan lane road
And I can't see behind me at all
The only unobstructed view
Is through this cracked windshield
I guess I'm thankful 'cause I can't keep looking back
At my life in the rearview mirror

Thought about that summer in Traverse City
The one that gave us our first kiss
It was long hot days and longer nights
Staying out 'til 3 a.m.
I had more hours to kill than there were dollars in my pocket
So I spent 'em on the beach with you
Or singing songs at a theater down by the docks

But the water levels rose
I bet that beach ain't even there anymore
And they turned that old theater into an organic foods store
You and I are still something
But we're something different
And I'm heading off to find what "different" is

So I'm driving alone
Down a two lane road
And I can't look behind me at all
The only unobstructed view
Is through this cracked windshield
I guess I'm thankful 'cause I can't keep looking back
At my life in the rearview mirror

We ain't kids anymore
It's time to shed the weight of the things that we carry
So we can carry more
I'm not suggesting we forget the past, no, I'm glad it's there
But I'm also glad that we can't turn around
What's in that rearview mirror is gonna have to stay there
And maybe one day girl we'll look back on today
As the past to which we long to return
But until that day…

There's no more driving alone
Down a two lane road
I got you sitting there beside me the whole way
And when we glance to the backseat
No, I don't know what'll be there
Maybe a pair of kids or the signs of some other dream
Either way it's good to have you on my team
As we're leaving time behind, all the laughter and the tears
I gotta say we sure did find a way to leave
A damn good life in the rearview mirror

credits

from Life in the Rearview Mirror, released August 11, 2017

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Craig Manning Traverse City, Michigan

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