Lessons I learned looking back at my High Schools days.
After a two-year delay, we were lucky to have booked a ticket to the comeback tour of the punk-rock, alternative band, Boys Like Girls. Although we had no plans of enjoying the nostalgia from the forefront, the balcony view, and nostalgic music were still worth it.
A band that found fame in the early ages of the internet played melodies my mind has known for almost half of my existence. After gaining world fame back then, they took a break. And here we are again twelve years later.
Songs of a simpler time, far from the constant presence of smartphones, online streaming platforms, and the toddler years of social media washed over me.
I was present in a moment of happiness. At the stroke of a few notes and the rhythm of the drums, a heart and mind time-traveled to a more naive, hopeful, and innocent past.
Forget about the nuances of being a teenager, what mattered was the weightless existence of wide-eyed appreciation and discovery.
And in a two-hour moment, I cared only of the ground beneath my feet, the music in the air, and the song in my lungs. Worries about tomorrow were locked outside the concert hall.
So, here are a few lessons I have learned looking back to my high school days
1. Escaping from a Self-Made Cage of My Past
Lights dimmed and the eyes of all in the arena turned to the stage. A deep voice blasted through the speakers as the crowd grew impatient.
Cheers waxed and waned urging time to move faster.
Lights flashed. One by one four band members took their places on the stage. The rhythm of Great Escape filled the air and the desire to run away flashed through my mind.
There was a point in my life I wanted to run away from the world I lived in. I lived in deep regret and wished things were different.
Instead of taking the lemons in front of me, I wished to be granted a chance to try again. I always wanted to leave behind the world that knew me and start fresh in a new town where no one knew my past and how I abandoned the things I cared about.
There was a reason John Green’s Paper Towns resonated deep within my soul.
After years of holding on to regret and a happier time as an innocent child, I had to learn to just pull the plug on all my pining. I had to take the plunge into recklessness and pave the way for my own escape from a life I was not happy about.
I had to make and mold the life I wanted. No longer rolling with the waves like when I was in high school. Maybe I can say I am finally free.
2. Reconciling a Past to Navigate The Present
Band members of Boys Like Girls were only about 18 or 19 when they began blowing up around the world. At such a young age, they looked at a level of stardom my 18-year-old self would not even know a single centimeter of.
In a somewhat literal sense, they stood on top of the world, something they may have only imagined in their dreams. So young and the world was at their fingertips.
Faced with the glitz and glam of fame, songs of the pain of reality reminded listeners of what the Top of the World really looked like.
Juxtaposing that to 18-year-old me—I was a young woman who had dreams I never said out loud. I believed I would live in mediocrity and fade into anonymity. With a somewhat rigid upbringing, I was a child who was never really able to express things I wanted and work on things I was interested in.
And so I became an adult who knew not what I wanted, nor what I stood firmly for.
I would never know how the members of Boys Like Girls grew up, but finding fame over a talent they were allowed to nurture and grow is something rare in a world where talent, art, and passion were snuffed out.
Realizing why I could have never been like them is like making friends with an old self and helping that person find their way to their own stars. Finally respecting the preferences I kept mum as a child is helping me understand where it is I really want to be even if just small and simple.
3. No Cellphones in Class -A Freedom from the Numb of Today
Halfway through the show, the adrenaline shared by an anticipating crowd began to dwindle.
Since arriving at the venue, it was the first time I thought about pulling out my phone to look through my messages.
Crazy.
The energy was dipping and cell phones were still raised into the air. The atmosphere shifted from excitement to the twinge of bedtime.
This is a throwback concert and the audience, like me were in their mid-to-late twenties, some even in their thirties.
Was our age showing?
Did jumping around after a full day of work drain the euphoric joy of live music?
There was a sadness in the atmosphere, a stillness— we were frozen in an eternal state of recording.
The person next to me—quiet as a mouse, hiding behind five to six inches of an LCD— made me feel like I should not be squirming in my seat like a child on some sugar high.
Screens in our faces are masks from living in the present. A strange medication. A testament to lives only lived vividly on camera. Dull and lifeless behind it.
Finally, Martin (lead singer and guitarist) could not take it any longer.
Fists closed he halted the music. Phones had to be put away. In seconds, the crowd awoken from its stupor. The concert came back to life.
This was a moment to be enjoyed in the present, not through videos of the past.
This was now. Work was long forgotten like my phone and its messages stuffed half haphazardly into my purse.
The present feels numb with phones constantly in our faces.
4. Growing Up too Fast—Old Chapters are Not for Regret
As I stood in the theatre, a door reopened while the band played songs from a high school girl’s past
With the innocence from that threshold, gloomy memories rushed through. I was facing missed chances and relationships that were left to rot because I was busy chasing after an uncertain tomorrow.
As someone who works on assigned tasks like there is no tomorrow, I never took notice of how shallow my friendship with people I called Best Friends was. I never noticed how I took all the responsibilities granted to me in stride.
So many opportunities were in front of me back in high school. Instead of exploring these and building skills over things I cared about I just kept jumping from one task to the next, one year level to the next.
Eventually, I graduated high school. I graduated college.
Looking back, I could have developed a better work ethic, a better love for writing and storytelling, for dance and music but all of these were secondary to the requirements to graduate.
I saw myself throwing away chances of discovery and instances of learning.
As a result, I graduated high school without any desire for what I wanted to become.
I peered through that door with eyes of regret and shame. But as a song ends and another begins, the closing chapters l were meant for newer things.
What matters is what I have in front of me today.
My past and the people from it will always be in my heart, though one of regret. I know I can still nurture and care for these people. I know I can still start over.
Life is so much more than just a dance hall drug.
5. Semestral Breaks- We all Need to Take a Break
Going out of town to watch this concert was a break I needed since starting my new job. With the benefit of working from anywhere, I packed my bags and took a break from my daily home routine.
Just like the band’s discography, they too took a decade-long break and came back better tuned to the soul that brought Boys Like Girls to fame.
Our life is not all spotlight and cheers. This band proved that stepping away does not mean denying success. Only preserving it.
Even in the heights of the ups, we need the downs. The downs remind us that life goes on whether we are running the marathon or taking a break on the curb. Seconds, hours, and days still come and go.
You cannot keep running from your past and the haunting demands of the present. There is always an opportunity to pack your bags and step away.
Looking back at my high school days, it made sense that school years were designed around summer and Christmas breaks.
We all need a holiday.
Chapters close and the pages continue to turn. Between sentences are periods of rest, and between paragraphs are spaces to breathe. As a chapter ends a page has to turn before another one begins.
So. Do you need to take a holiday? Do you need to find a new place? So take the freedom. Begin a new day. Run Wild. No rush to get back.
Busyzi 