Packing and going through YEARS of my collection of memories has been quite the emotional experience. I’ve laughed, smiled, cried, reminisced….all to myself and it’s been really quite the adventure. The best part is…I’m still friends with most of the people I spent my teenage years with and so we’ve grown to like a whole variety of different things, but once upon a time all of our interests were almost identical. 

1. We all have our moments when we hear music we used to really like and listen to religiously and think to ourselves….WTF was I thinking? And then there’s the rare occasion that the music is actually still pretty good. I’d say it’s pretty even in this case. In cases like “You’ll Never Guess Who Died” by the Kinison or “Ticklish” by At The Drive In(I’ve been dancing in the bathroom stalls) I really can only stand them because they bring back so many memories. Then there’s stuff like anything really by Northstar, “You Have My Attention” by Copeland, the first album of Panic!’s & Jack’s Mannequin….that I could probably still enjoy. And slightly because of the memories. Hehehehe.

2. Okay another big thing was making “mixtapes” which really were mix cd’s except for the rare occasion where we actually…..made tapes. Or our awesome friend Jill took the idea from Hairstyles Of The Damned and made us our own “The 90’s Can Suck It” mixtape. She was fucking cool. 

3. Ridiculous pictures & even more ridiculous inside jokes. And I mean ridiculous. Anywhere from Power Joggers to Simon&Garfunkel to Grandmas VS. Grandpas to taking pictures in carts outside of the galleria mall, security cameras in the Lingerie section at Macy’s. At the park. At the park again. And then at the park. Cause we were always at a damn park. (What else do you do when you’re 16? Listen to music. And go to the park. And laugh about stupid stuff constantly. And hope you get a ride because let’s face it….none of us really drove until Greg got a license.)

I mean there are a ton of things that I have remembered and come across that have just really made me think back on the good old teenage days I don’t regret any of those days. New friends, old friends, old friends that became new friends AGAIN and AGAIN. We were so young and silly. 

…..nothing’s changed.