Songs About Leaving

The idea of leaving a place fascinates me because there’s a naïve part of me that thinks I’ll be leaving myself behind. It feels like I won’t be the same person I was wrapped up in a blanket surrounded by the cream walls. Leaving a place behind means I’ll find a different Sakhile waiting for me, different and clean. Untethered by depression and the ills and aches of this body.

Suburbia – Troye Sivan

This song makes me want to get up and take a walk through my old home town but its 800km away and so much has changed, there’s a church where an empty field used to be and nobody knows my name anymore.

Ghost In The Machine – B.o.B

This one reminds me that I need to leave for my own sake, for my own sanity. As far away as I can go. I’m a ghost in this place, aimlessly drifting, waiting for something, waiting for freedom. I’m not a child any more. I can’t keep hiding. I need to leave these four walls behind but I’m terrified.

Lovely – Billie Eilish and Khalid

I hope someday I’ll make it out of here, even if it takes all night or a hundred years. This is about finding your home. Home isn’t always where you’re from, it’s where you feel safe, it’s where you can sit in the dark with a single candle on and no one will walk in to turn the TV and the lights on.

Whispers – Passenger

There should be a clear path by now. I should know by now. Isn’t that what they all say? 24 and everything isn’t what I thought it would be. It’s quiet and I can’t figure it out.

Cholocate and Cigarettes – Angus and Julia Stone

This is the first song I’ve ever associated with leaving, leaving a place behind. That’s all I’ve ever wanted, to leave it all behind but there’s a fear of new things, of new places holding me back. There’s comfort in familiar faces and old places.

Fast Car – Tracy Chapman

Is it fast enough so we can fly away? Sometimes it feels like I’ll die here, that I’ll never leave, that I’ll always be the girl waiting for something to happen that will change everything. I thought I could be someone when I was younger.

As much as I love songs about leaving, I can never leave myself. Wherever I go, I’ll always take myself with me.

If you know any songs about leaving a place or a life, let me know in the comments. I’m always looking for more to add to my playlist.