R.E.M. - Its the End of the World As We Know It
They played this fucking song at the end of the morning show in 8th grade. Every single solitary 120 lb five foot four day I spent there - they played this song. Every morning I’d get there a solid hour early because that’s when my brother had to be to school. I’d walk the halls and find corners that had better reverb - so I could hit the high notes - and I’d sit there and sing to myself as loud as I could, hoping one of my parents would hear me and come back into my life for a bit.
TANGENT (start)
I’ve watched the middle school telenovella’s play out on Capitol Hill this week and I’m gobstopped at how awful and completely deceitful every single character in this charade is - government included. A nice suit and a fancy dinner won’t keep your ass from chapping in hell, that much I know. How is it the only person to really make sense to me is an alleged hollywood exec with an anonymous advice column?
TANGENT (end)
This one time yup - I was totally busted. We had different janitors in the Summers, I never missed Summer school, and she walked up behind me in one of my fave echo corners in the 2nd floor math hall. I can’t imagine her head cocked look as she turned the corner to find me I facing the wall like a dunce, but it served as a monitor of sorts, helping me hear my voice better.
This corner was special, it had more windows and better insulation to keep the sunlight from heating up the rooms. I had probably been working on “Weak” by SWV for the better part of that Spring - by then I had it down - no way could she deny it, I was good. I was probably two thirds of the way through when she walked up, but I kept going. I finally had my audience.
She was the perfect audience, for the remaining days in that Summer, I’d try out new stuff sometimes walk around with her before school. She was great - a far cry from the Cuban ex-pats that looked at me as if I was the plague, muttering things about my ethnicity in Espanol. It only took those handful of moments for me to have the confidence I needed to actually grow up and slowly become the person I am.
The right audience with well constructed and intended passions can create incredible outcomes.
