This section offers a deeper look at select tracks from This Long Broken Road. Not every song will appear here — some stories are simply too personal, too painful, or too private to share. What follows are the ones I’ve chosen to speak about, along with the moments and meanings that shaped them.
War Inside
This was a song I needed to write — but more importantly, I needed to produce it, because it has a chance to save lives. Depression isn’t talked about enough, and my goal wasn’t to say, “Oh, you’re gonna be all right. Everybody gets a little sad.” I wanted it to feel like I walked right up to someone in that hole, told them what was happening inside me, and let them know they weren’t alone.
Sometimes, when I was very deep in the darkest places, knowing that there were other people suffering alongside me gave me a glimmer of hope. Even though we were all hurting and doing our best to hide it from the world in isolation, it meant that we weren’t completely alone. Those of us who suffer from depression all know that “voice within that tells us the truth.” It’s not the truth — but in those moments of deep despair and anguish, when we’re alone in the dark with that voice, we’ll believe anything it says and take it as the truth.
Reason Why (twin song with Let Go)
This song carries the weight of fifteen years I spent as a 911 dispatcher. It’s written from the perspective of an operator (me) who answered hundreds of calls that ended this way — with grief, loss, and silence on the other end of the line. Too often, both I and the caller were powerless to do anything more than wait for help to arrive.
I didn’t write Reason Why as a dramatization. I wrote it as a testimony—to capture the echoes of voices I still hear. It’s my attempt to give shape to that helplessness, and in doing so, honor the countless people who’ve cried out for help in their final moments.
Let Go (twin song with Reason Why)
The line “To live in the hearts of others is to never die” is my own adaptation of the epitaph on my grandparents’ tombstone: “To live in the hearts of those we leave behind is not to die.” I never met my grandfather, Pete Walker, who drowned years before I was born, but I miss my grandmother, Alice Faye Walker, every single day.
Let Go is dedicated to them. It’s written as a “voice from the grave,” a message of comfort from the ones who’ve gone before us. For me, it’s a way of carrying their love forward. For others, I hope it serves as a reminder that the ones we’ve lost live on inside us, in memory and in heart.
Do or Die
I tried to go to college half a dozen times across my life, but it wasn’t until 2021 that I finally made the leap to leave 911 dispatch behind and pursue computer science and technology. I started with zero credits, and in December 2025, I’ll graduate with a master’s degree in computer science.
Do or Die came from staring down this long, broken road and deciding it wasn’t too late. I could change my life. I could take a different path. And I could finally be happy. This song is my anthem of determination—for me, and for anyone else who needs to know that no matter how far gone you feel, there’s still time to turn the wheel and blaze a new path for the better.
