Drive

"Hey kids, rock and roll, nobody tells you where to go, baby. What if you ride? What if you roll? What if you rock around the clock?"  REM, Automatic For the People

Drive.  The opening song of one of my favorite albums ever and an album that screams high school to me.  That acoustic guitar at the very being just draws you in to another place.  It is not a happy guitar, it is not a meloncholy one either, it is a guitar that has something to say and wants you to listen.  And listen I did.  I have always loved REM, but I can honestly say I have not followed any of their new stuff in many years now.  I wonder why.  Maybe in my head they just have a place immortized for what they were when I discovered them as a child growing up, and then truly listened to the music as I got older.  Perhaps it is the people in my life that I relate to this music.  I remember going to my friend Jennifer's Halloween party/hay ride my sophmore year in high school and singing "Stand" and my friend Zack was surprised I knew REM.  How could I not with a catchy little ditty like that?   Hehe...but seriously, I hear this particular album and I am transported back fifteen years when we all thought that life was so complicated.  Little did we all know that it was so trivial and that that real life was going to all kick us in the butt at some point or another along the way.  I guess that is just part of being a teenager though--growing, learning, but meeting people and having experiences that would forever change our lives and the way we are as people.  I am thankful for those experiences.  I am thankful for those people.  I am thankful for the good music that gets to be part of my life soundtrack.