Sometimes, I Want the 90s Back

I spent the evening with an old friend.  He's going through a rough time.  We haven't really talked much in years, but we used to hang out a bit in the high school and a few years after.

It's strange to see him this way.  My memory is of a gregarious kid who was head over heels for a friend of ours and saw all the possibilities ahead of him for life.  Now he seems to have no will to be happy or fulfilled.

It helps me look at my life a little differently.  Sure, I'm excited about where I am, but I don't feel that I've given myself all I'll ever have to offer.  I don't see every experience as a road to disappointment.  Perhaps there's still some optimism in me yet.

I suppose I have a soft spot for that time because I was a teenager, moving into early adulthood, so those times seem bittersweet and somewhat carefree.  And the music was fucking outstanding!  Grunge/Alternative, whatever you want to call it was the music of my soul.  NIN, TOOL, Tori, PJ, Better Than Ezra, Nirvana, TMBG, Toad; I could go on.  I find myself perusing the used CD section of Vintage Stock and Half Price Books.  I'm rebuilding the collection I once sold.

I hope he finds some peace of mind and his own value of himself TO himself and to others.  I hope I can keep mine and be an example that it can happen.