2024 Personal Essay Writing Challenge: Day 4
For today’s prompt, write a response essay. You can respond to another essay or article that you’ve recently read. But you can also respond to an event, a song, a movie, or even a meme. In many ways, a response essay is one of the most popular options a writer can use.
Remember: These prompts are springboards to creativity. Use them to expand your possibilities, not limit them.
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Completely separate of this fun and free personal essay challenge, be sure to check out the annual Writer’s Digest Personal Essay Awards. The top prize is $2,500 cash, publication in Writer’s Digest, and more.
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Here’s my attempt at a Response personal essay:
“The Best Damn Queen Show Ever!,” by Robert Lee Brewer
My wife is a huge yacht rock fan. We have multiple channels programmed in our minivan set to play music by the likes of Christopher Cross, Lionel Richie, Rupert Holmes, and ONJ. But she also loves the yacht rock cover bands, including Yacht Rock Revue and Yacht Rock Schooner, which is how we get on to the subject of Queen.
Once a year, Yacht Rock Schooner collaborates with the Atlanta Gay Men’s Chorus to present “The Best Damn Queen Show Ever!” It’s basically a night of Queen covers. My wife was interested because of yacht rock, and I’ve always been a fan of Queen. So I figured it would be a good night of music, which didn’t quite hit the mark.
We had to drive down to Little Five Points in Atlanta to watch the show, which meant a bit of traffic, and I had to figure out how to download some tickets app, which caused me to get car sick (and remind me that I’m old and not an app-friendly individual). While I was still looking forward to the music, I was just not feeling great (something about feeling old and nauseous, just not a good combo).
But then the band and the chorus filed onto the stage and the Atlanta Gay Men’s Chorus jumped straight into “Fat Bottomed Girls,” and I was hooked. Jumping from “Killer Queen” to “Another One Bites the Dust” to “Don’t Stop Me Now,” I found I wasn’t just a music lover loving music; rather, I was having a sort of spiritual experience with the sounds and lyrics I had internalized since I was young listening to “Bicycle Race” and “Bohemian Rhapsody.”
I was a boy again dancing in his room with the music cranked up and singing along with every lyric. You could say I had a real good time. And while some folks might say it’s a bit presumptuous for a cover band to claim they’re putting on “The Best Damn Queen Show Ever!,” for me it filled a hole in my soul that I didn’t know was there. So yes, even without Mercury, May, and the rest of the gang, maybe it was the best damn show at that.