Suzanne explaing how the song was written to herself and reflected her way of seeing her own life at 15:
"I felt like a very introspective teenager and spent a lot of time not playing, actually. I was one of those kids who was really bad at sports, or had a really hard time picking up the rules of any game, so I spent a lot of time always being the narrator of whatever play was going on, a kind of on the side of things. So the song is all about how you can't do that, you're gonna really get right in there. So it was my way of writing to myself to say to get out of there, and risk a little bit more, and not be so safe in what you're doing."
[...]
"The idea of the song is life as being a game, it has certain rules, you can really enjoy yourself, or you can just kind of sit by the side and not enjoy yourself, and I think I was trying to rally myself to go out and go for it a bit more."
Radio Interview, Infinite Mind Program

Suzanne on inspiration for songs:
I get my inspirations from things that are ordinary and not precious at all, like children's nursery rhymes, and games that kids play in the streets. Things that I had played as a child; sing-song rhymes and rhythms that you make up to amuse yourself while you're jumping rope, or if you're teasing somebody else... That's where I first got a sense of words, what they were about.
Interview with Paul Zollo in Song Talk, Vol. 2, #17, Spring 1992, also published in "Language", 5:1 August 1992, (http://www.vega.net/songtal2.htm) trancription by Steve Zwanger