2005

A lot went on, my eighth grade year.
My dad got a girlfriend.
My mom got a boyfriend.
My grandma died.
I went to my first concert.
I became infatuated for the first time.
I said goodbye to the only life and people I'd known for the previous 7 years.

I lost the strongest woman I ever knew, and met the most heart-breaking I have yet to know.

And in the spring of this eighth grade year, a message in the form of music called out to me, and I listened. Oh, I listened.

It was growing up, and it was sunny. I even probably was a little tan.

Singing in the hallways, singing at recess, smiles & laughter with friends I'd never be that close to again.

With gowns that blue, there was no doubt they were trying to warn us, "the end of childhood is near!"

2005 is the year of American Idiot: the gradual descent of innocence.