Love Song Contest Winners

Entries will express, in 300 words or less, why Corey Dargel should write a love song for the contestant. Entries will be judged based on wit, originality, and emotional depth. Judging will be done by the staff of Studio 360. The judges’ decision will be final. The winner will be selected by March 18, 2007. Winner will be notified by telephone or email. If the winner is unable to redeem the prize, the unclaimed prize will go to the first runner-up and subsequent runner-ups until prize is awarded. Winner must provide his or her social security number.

THE WINNING LETTER
From Teresa Walsh, a KQED listener:
When my sister left for college last September, I didn’t think I would miss her that much. Technology has made it so you are always a few keystrokes or a cell phone away from anyone, but nothing can ever quite make up for the intimacy of sharing a can of coke or seeing a smile up close, believe me.

My sister and I are twins, but I’ve always taken that for granted. Our mother likes to tell stories of us as toddlers walking around the house, completely engrossed in conversations in a language strictly of our own making. Now that she’s not here I feel this dull ache inside whenever she pops into my consciousness. I had a random memory come back to me the other day of us in the rain together, seven years old, clothed in Donald Duck raincoats, prancing around the backyard soaking wet and laughing. We were gathering rain for a moat, and it didn’t seem to matter that we didn’t have a castle to protect from villains of our own making.

Now that she’s not here I really appreciate everything she’s ever done for me. She makes me a more open person, she makes me laugh, she isn’t afraid to be who she is. If I didn’t have her in my life I would probably be the sorriest, most boring person ever.

I want her to know how much I miss her and love her. We’ve always shared music and expanded each other’s musical tastes and a song written about the us two seems like the perfect way to represent the connection we share that we could never have with anyone else; friends, adversaries, partners in mischief, each other’s wingmen, secret keepers, entertainers, sisters. Twins share birthdays, but we share way more than that.

RUNNERS UP
From a KERA listener:
I am half Russian and half Azeri (from Azerbaijan). My husband is Vietnamese American. There could have been a giant cultural gap between us but there is none, which is partly explained in that we share one thing in common – being “Americanized” – and partly because we are perfect halves of a whole.

He and I met 4 years ago in Texas, became best friends, shared each other’s secrets, ups and downs and finally realized that we love each other even more than best friends. We enjoyed our couple status only for few months before he ended up moving to California after being awarded a full scholarship to a law school. During one of my visits we decided that we are crazy enough about each other to get married, so we drove to the nearest courthouse, deposited 2 quarters into the meter, ran inside, got married, and ran out happy-faced.

Just when we thought the frequent 3 hour flights were over, we found out that because of my current and past immigration visas, I must go back home for a couple of years before I can permanently settle in United States. Alas, I’ll be leaving on March 15th to start my “sentence” on the other side of the globe and I would really like to leave something for him that he can listen to that would make him smile. I am completely tone deaf but he is very musically talented, so this would be a perfect gift for him. We know the 2 years will pass by quickly and it will be even quicker if we can share something special like this.

From a WDET listener:
Many people would say that mine and Christine’s love isn’t meant to be because we are both women.
We each felt different from those around us while growing up, but didn’t have a name for it. Being raised in the Mormon faith, we both knew how our lives were supposed to be lived. Consequently, we did as we were expected. This meant we married young, and settled down to be good wives and homemakers for our husbands. Unfortunately, it wasn’t as fulfilling as we were told it should be. Something just didn’t feel right.

Independently, we each moved to Michigan and met while working together at the local Mormon church. We were drawn to each other over time, and found ourselves falling in love. It took time to admit this to each other, and even more time before we were willing to leave our faith to be together. We were married in a small ceremony in Sarnia, Ontario, Canada last August.
There are those who would criticize us for leaving our religion and our husbands. We have friends and family who say we’ve sold our souls to build a life together. We are able to look past all of the persecution we’ve faced because in our hearts we know we were brought together. We are living our lives the way God meant for us, and the happiness we’ve found outweighs all of the pain it has taken us to get here.

There are many love songs that are special to the two of us, but there are few songs written about a story as unique as ours. Having a song written for just the two of us would give us one more expression of love to hold as ours alone.

From a WDUQ listener:
I am finishing 20 years of military service as a navy combat camera photographer.

I first discovered my wife in a chat room in 1995 while I lived in Italy and she was going to school back home in Maine. Our first date was a story we wrote to each other: the location, a restaurant I love in Rome but had no one special to share it with. We ate, laughed, and talked all night without ever meeting.

When I returned to the States in 1996, she moved to Washington D.C. to live with me. She had never been outside Maine or New Hampshire before and had a hard time living so far from home. To make her anxiety worse, she was pregnant and we were not making ends meet. So I had to be gone all the time to make some extra money to pay the bills. We moved to Virginia Beach when it was my time to return to a combat camera unit. It was really exciting for us – it was a location that my paycheck can afford and we looked forward to spending time together. But within a month I was sent away on a 9 month deployment.

I returned to a home in August 2001 that was really strained for us, because we had been married four years and spent almost no time together. But now I was on rotation to spend some time home. Then 9/11 happened and I was gone again: first to New York and Washington DC on 9/11, then to GITMO, then to the Middle East. In the seven years we had been in a relationship (Italy, multiple jobs, the War on Terror), life always seemed to be a rip tide pulling us apart.

After eleven years together, we are preparing for retirement from the Navy. I still feel my heart leap when I think that I can take the rest of my journey with her holding my hand.

From a KIOS listener:
Please consider writing a song for my mother, Rose.

When I was an angst-ridden teenager, my father would tease me by calling me “Little Rose” and point out whenever I acted like my mother. That was the quickest way to get on my nerves. When I was a child, she would drive 90 miles from our rural Nebraska home to work 12 hour shifts at Children’s Hospital in Omaha. This would strain anyone, but my mother added to the challenge by attending college. I can’t remember a time when she wasn’t taking a class, and she now holds three master’s degrees in pediatric nursing. As if all that wasn’t enough, with four kids and a tight budget, my parents chose to adopt two foster children. The younger girls have had more than their fair share of problems, but my mother has carried us through them all. Through everything, she keeps her own unique, quirky sense of humor: she can make a room groan with some of the worst puns you will ever hear.

The girls will be graduating from high school soon, and it’s exciting to see my Mom developing interests and a life of her own. She’s taken up biking and a bunch of other activities she never had time for before. But, always the nurturer, she has “adopted” a group of the neighbor kids, who stop by to make cookies and ice cream.

Every success I’ve had is because of my mother’s love and guidance. At 23, I am terrified that I won’t live up to the example my mother has been. I often stop to pray I will earn the moniker “Little Rose.” There is no greater compliment.