Songfacts®:

• Brad Paisley wrote this partly autobiographical song after asking himself the question, 'When does one truly start living?' He realized one experiences life most in the midst of personal challenge. "You're alive when that girl you thought you'd marry is driving away in the limousine with someone else," he said. "And you're alive when you're standing in Paris looking at the Eiffel Tower, and you know when you go back to Nashville, you'll never be the same. And you're alive when you stand up for something you believe in and aren't afraid to do that. And you're alive when your first child is born, and that love you feel is so much larger than you ever imagined possible. That's why I wrote that. That song was meant to be the exclamation point."