Gutters Full of Rain...

Rediscovering my Youth

Okay....most people would say that I'm not old enough to rediscover my youth but I disagree. I believe that once you are no longer a teenager you can rediscover anything.

This is what I mean...
Recently I've been listening to a lot of 80s music. For example: Van Halen, Wham, Journey, Whitney Houston (before the crack), Led Zepplin, old school Micheal Jackson, AC/DC and songs like 'Come on Eileen,' 'Lose your love Tonight,' 'Magic Carpet Ride,' and many others that go along in this category. While listening to said music I am remembering things like:

1. Roller skating in my unfinished basement with my sisters.
2. Sidewalk chalk
3. Shrinky Dinks
4. Light brights
5. Water fights that lasted all afternoon.
6. Snap Bracelets
7. Umbro shorts
8. Little plastic hoops that held your shirt in place at your hip.
9. Leg warmers
10. Sit and spins
11. My Little Ponies
12. He-man and She-Ra
13. Play dough
14. Care Bears......the first time around
15. Cabbage Patch Kids
16. Kid sister and my Buddy
17. Strawberry shortcake
18. Legos
19. Barbies - when they were still oh so cool
20. Smurfs
21. Fraggles
22. Teased Bangs
23. Mad Libs
24. 867-5309
25. Beta Tapes
26. "School House Rock" - Preferably Conjunction Junction and I'm just a Bill
27. Atari
28. Scratch and Sniff Stickers
29. Jelly Shoes

and much much more. That list is symbolic of the good old days. When I could play outside carefree until the sun went down and time was of no concern. When school was easy and the math problems where 5*9 and 45/13. When fractions were the hardest thing I had to learn and broken hearts were a thing of mystery. When being under pressure meant being at the bottom of the body pile during a friendly game of capture the flag and truth or dare was the controversial game on the playground. Whenever we got introuble it was for grass stains and saying innocent things like butt head and shut up....not for having drugs or driving under the influence. When we got into fights they only lasted a day or so and then everything was forgotten.

Life has started to become so hard and serious now that I'm in my twenties. I think about my problems then and my problems now and sometimes I wish I didn't know now what I didn't know then. Things like what it is like to lose a best friend in a car accident, what it is like to have my heart broken, how it feels to be rejected by someone you like, how it feels to lose a family member, how it feels to be betrayed by close friends. I miss how it felt to be innocent when feelings weren't so complicated and life was just a glass of lemonade and a bag of oreos.

Maybe we just need to simpilify you know. Be happy with what we have. I think that I spend so much time trying to be happy that I miss out on the small things that would really make me happy if I just took time to notice them. Hmmm......interesting.

posted by Linz @ 4:04 PM