Those Leg-Tapping Sounds: Melodies and Memories

This last week or so I've found myself listening to more and more music, a lot more than I have in a long time. I think it started once the homework started piling up; I would turn on some Nickel Creek to distract me while I rushed to catch up on my China and music appreciation classes. There's something about music, some genres more than others, that calms me and allows me to focus more.

Then, once school was done for the term (finally), and I was staying up late on this blog writing about how I never write, I started visiting some old favorites. I started listening to Kutless, Third Day, David Crowder Band, and some others, all my favorites that up until a couple nights ago I hadn't listened to in a long time. After I had worn out those, I would go on Myspace Music and play some of my even older favorites, like Nickelback, Linkin' Park, and right now I have Staind playing. I don't make it a habit to listen to much secular music, but when you're young and home schooled you look for any reason to be cool.

Listening to all these songs that I hadn't listened to in years, since my early years of high school for some of them, brought back some memories. Old memories of high school life, of homework, youth ministry, all-night video games, and Mountain Dew. Oh my, how I used to do the Dew. It was the fuel that allowed all us private school nerds to survive and thrive through an entire night of destroying one another in endless Halo and WarCraft battles.

Another thing that brought up these memories was when Kasey and I were reflecting on high school again this weekend, remembering parties and homework and boyfriends (only her on that last one, just to make sure we're clear). We laughed about the times we wasted, the food we used to eat with no second thoughts, the relationships that were and now are no more, and ended the conversation with observing how much we miss those days and yet don't at the same time.

During high school, there was nothing more fun than getting together with my few friends and going on a sugar-high all night to play as long as we could before finally crashing on whatever couch or chair or floor corner was available. I enjoyed the homework more then too. Back then I wrote papers on the monarchs of Europe or a re-write of Hamlet; now I write ten different papers on China-U.S.-Taiwan relations, or read an entire textbook and then take a quiz based primarily off the chapter titles. And now the latest I can stay up is about 2 or 3 in the morning, and that's only if I am writing a blog or writing out another China paper. Oh and now Mountain Dew disgusts me. I imagine that goat pee tastes about the same.

Looking at where I am now, I can't believe that I thought that was all fun. Maybe my innocence was destroyed after Bible college, or my first full time job, or getting married and having kids; I don't know (big surprise). But I do know that reading to my son or spending time with my wife does not compare in any way to playing some dumb computer game, no matter how great the game is or how many friends you play it with.

High school was great, but I refuse to see those 3+ years as the "best," or "most fun" out of the 80+ I have total. I have a whole career to start, a Father-provided mission to fulfill, a wife to love and cherish, and at least two kids to raise up. Sure, during high school you don't have that much responsibility, your parents take care of everything for you, and you can eat and do whatever you want pretty much. But now that I've been there and done that, now that I actually have some of those responsibilities, I don't know how anyone can wish for the "carefree days" again. I don't want less to do, I want more to do. Being married and raising kids doesn't scare me one bit; being 35-40 and still playing video games does.


When you teach your son, you teach your son's son. -The Talmud