Text – Narrative Folksong

The phrase “Take the high road” origins can be potentially traced back to the old 1800’s folksong, “The Bonnie Banks of Loch Lomond.”The phrase has now been taken out of context to mean something more about being the bigger person rather than its literal use in the song. Claire talks about how her father uses this phrase and how it has impacted her life through young adulthood.

Context –

CB: I mean, my dad is always, like, saying, sayings, so I’m trying to think of them. I don’t know, he’s always just, like, saying to “take the high road”. That’s something I think about a lot.

Interviewer: Why do you think you think about it a lot?

CB: Cause you have to, like, physically make the choice to do it. If it comes naturally, then you’re a really good person. Whenever I think of taking the high road, I have, like, a visual image in my mind of overlapping highways and you’re just making the decision to look at the skyline and keep going rather than stay in whatever is underneath you and bogging you down.

Interviewer: Hmm. That’s cool.

CB: Yeah. And I think it’s ’cause I used to be, I used to like feel like, especially in high school, in the beginning of college, I used to feel like I needed to fight every fight. Yeah. And resolve every issue. But I had to learn how to let things go, and the image really helped to remind me of that.

My Interpretation –

CB has been one of my closest friends since 1st grade. Seeing her progression into the person she is today and learning about how this phrase helps her dictate the way in which she walks through life makes so much sense with her character. As we get older and get over the cliché-ness of famous sayings, we start to realize the truth behind the words and why they became cliché’s in the first place. Sometimes all it takes for a saying to kick in and shake things up is proper timing for the person being told the phrase too. While Claire had heard this saying from her dad for years, it finally took full effect when she moved to college and got to let the thought finally marinate in her head and then apply it in her own way see fit.