 The songwriters decided to alter "Journey to the Past"'s position in the story, relocating it to the middle of the production in favor of using the song as the Act 1 conclusion instead.By doing so, the song evolves into more of an "I Want" song, explaining that "even though it dealt with indecision, [the song] couldn't be the start of a character arc" because "we needed to lay the groundwork for this moment.” The character now sings the song after she has finally arrived in Paris, France, where she will ultimately discover whether or not she is in fact the Grand Duchess.Ahrens believes that after spending the entire first act desperately trying to find out who she is, the new placement establishes that Anya is now finally "on the brink of it.