On the ride home tonight, I listened to the rawk radio station. You know, those stations that are weary of new stuff, but thrive on solid guitar-driven hits from a decade ago. That’s the station that young people feel lame programming on their CD player. I was appreciating it. I mean, they played songs from my early years of high school: Lenny Kravitz “Are You Gonna Go My Way”, Offspring “Come Out and Play”, and Rob Zombie “More Human than Human.” All of a sudden I felt like I was in the car on my way to Blairsville for soccer practice. Like it was this morning, I can remember the pressure from my peers to do anything and nothing and something.

What a strange time in pop culture that was. When being odd/weird was cool, being pretty was something you tried to hide or distort. All of a sudden those weirdos from Middle School had something going on that “normal” people didn’t. (That lasted for about a year and half…then everyone decided they needed the time-tested traditional popularity of money and good looks.)

It sure does seem silly now that we defined ourselves by what music we listened to. It is more than silly–it is embarrassing. Maybe it was just the crutch we needed until we learned how to walk as our own person. But it is a shame how music becomes a lifestyle and that lifestyle can cripple you for life. I am not saying that listening to a style of music forces us into a life, but I won’t deny it had a huge impact. I watched our “cool clique” of freshman party their way into popularity and on into their own little hell of drug addiction, STDs, and jailtime.

I am so thankful my parents raised us kids the way they did. When the sex and drugs became common, I had the strength and courage to be uncommon. I didn’t have the applause of a fleeting group of freshman, but I am on top of the world. I dream, and I become. I’m tired, I’m going to bed.