Finding a Way In - Posting for Reverbnation site

I am currently reading FITTING IN IS OVERRATED: THE SURVIVAL GUIDE FOR ANYONE WHO HAS FELT LIKE AN OUTSIDER, by Leonard Felder. This book is reminding me of the reasons why I began to write songs 40 years ago. While I probably won't be sharing some of those first efforts any time soon, much of what I wrote about in those first lyrics focused on my desire to be a part of a community and to develop close friendships. The community was always there, and I stayed connected even when I felt that I didn't fit in. Even in situations, then and in more recent years, when I felt like an outsider, I realized that I learned something new about myself and how to relate to people from every experience.
In the fall of 1977, I put some of those feelings into a song that had several levels of meaning. It was about being a performer in front of a new audience, but it was also about trying to break into a social circle (and, perhaps, the "dating scene"). I let the song stay as it was for 22 years. In the fall of 1999, in order to "restart" my songwriting (I had been on a 19 year hiatus at that point), I revisited that song about "breaking in" and added a third verse. I felt that I had to take the lyrics to some point of conclusion, which I had not done before - that it IS possible to find one's way into a community through persistence, patience and personal honesty. "Let Me Sing My Way Into Your Night" is the first track on my CD, "A New Beginning." I can remember the joy I felt recording that song in a studio in 2004, singing words that I had written so long before along with the further expressions of hope that concluded the song. This song still is my most prized personal statement about the hard work of becoming and remaining connected to a community.