Party in the USA

Miley Cyrus has a little song you might have heard of, called "Party In the USA." If you've never heard it you can listen to it here. Catchy, right?

Most people mock the song for its horrible pop-ness, but I've really come to appreciate it for its deeper, more subtle meanings. The song came out last year, right as I was packing up to move to New Jersey. Beneath the silly lyrics about rocking kicks and Nashville parties (whatever those are), the song is really about how much of an obstacle homesickness can be when pursuing your dreams. Miley is jetting off to LA to become a big music star, feeling a little wary about being so far from her hometown, when she hears her favorite song on the radio. Despite being thousands of miles from Nashville, and all of the comfort and familiarity that that entails, she realizes she is still "home," in this mighty country called the United States of America, where people in LA are rocking out to the same songs as people in Nashville (or New Jersey, or Omaha, or DC).

There is a bar not too far from my house here in DC called the Union Pub where, every Saturday, Husker fans from across the city gather to yell and scream at the TV and drink pitchers of Elk Creek. The bar gets so packed with people the bouncer has to turn people away at the door, and every single patron is sporting Husker gear. That, my dear friends, is what Miley Cyrus is singing about in "Party in the USA." Thousands of miles away, in a strange and unfamiliar city, I have found a little piece of home to get me through.