Critical Karaoke

By: Dalia Perez

Julia Michaels started her career in the music industry as a songwriter, writing hits for artists like Selena Gomez and Justin Bieber. Then in 2017 she started her solo singing career and has recently released her second EP (extended play) titled Inner Monologue Part 1. This EP features six songs and includes two collaborations with artists Selena Gomez and Niall Horan. Michaels’ EP is personal and honest. She shares her personal experiences about dealing with anxiety, depression, and relationships.

My favorite song from this EP is “Anxiety”, a collaboration with Selena Gomez. Micheals touches on her personal experiences dealing with mental illness in terms of depression and anxiety. This song describes the effect anxiety may have on relationships and mentions that a lot of people do not understand what it’s like to have anxiety. This song hits home to both Micheals and Gomez because they have both openly spoken about anxiety and depression during their careers.

This song reminds me of the way I felt throughout my past four years of college and continue to feel throughout my current fifth year in college. The lyrics “Oh, I try my best just to be social/I make all these plans with friends and hope they call and cancel” reminds me of the times I made plans with my friends but I end up canceling last minute because of my anxiety. In terms of school, this reminds me of all the times I have not registered for a class I really wanted to take because it requires an oral presentation, group work, and active participation.  I also have constantly missed the first day of class throughout my college experience in fear that the professor will have an ice breaker where I will have to introduce myself to the class. In general, any type of social interaction causes my anxiety to kick in and makes me feel like my heart is going to jump out of my chest and my whole body starts to shake making it hard to speak.

Another memory that helps me relate to this song occurred in my senior year of high school. I was in my senior capstone class I had to do a practice presentation on a senior project I did on being a nail technician. My friend Gabby had just finished doing her practice presentation and I was next. Keep in mind that I had gone over my presentation many times in front of my family. So I started presenting my senior project to the class and it was going okay but then started getting shaky. At one point I was opening a bottle of nail polish specifically used for nail designs. I opened the bottle fine but when I was trying to close it my hands started to shake uncontrollably, which lead me to have to turn around in the middle of my presentation in order to calm down and close the bottle of nail polish. In the end, my practice presentation did not go well my teacher was worried about me and I had to do my practice presentation again but only in front of my teacher which went better but not great.  

Overall, this song reminds me of all the times my anxiety has held me back from hanging out with my friends, taking classes I am interested in and in pursuing careers in my field of interest. But throughout the years I have learned to live with it and I believe that my anxiety has improved. I have been trying to be more social and tried to take more classes that have challenged me.