 Although Ahrens was initially troubled by the prospect of writing a bridge using only whole notes because she realized that meant each word would have to be "huge ideas", she decided to apply this to the words "home, love, family", using two different notes for the last word "family", which became "faaaa-mily".Other than these revisions, there was virtually no objection to the song; Flaherty recalled that "Journey to the Past" "felt absolutely right".Ahrens recalled that "Somehow that song just seemed to capture it and everybody knew it the minute we played it for the powers that be.”

Ahrens and Flaherty completed writing the song in one day, during what the lyricist described as "a burst of energy".