The Summer of SBM

Well I got moved into the dorms OK. Being on the first floor sure makes moving a lot easier! But I think my sophomore will go even better than last year. On Friday I became increasingly aware of how easy it is to pick out freshman moving in. Most of the time both parents are there along with a sibling, and they always manage to crack a half smile when you say hey to them.

Finally having some free time for a couple of days during pre-season has given me some time to reflect on the past summer. One that has affected me in more ways than I originally thought. It was during the third week of summer when I started making realizations about who I was, where I came from, what I wanted to do and be.

It all started one night after I had gone fishing with some friends on the TN river at night. Everybody who has been out late in the south, knows what a great feeling it is to be out there at that time of night. When all the world seems to be at peace, and perfection is close by. It was fairly late when I got in and was still hyped up so I couldn't possibly go to sleep. So I decided to creep as quietly as possible up to the bonus room above the garage so not to wake anybody up. I planned on watching a little of whatever was on TV in hopes that it would put me to sleep faster. I was flipping through the channels without any possible solutions to my 'ailment'; no to The Kardashians, no to Seinfeld, I didn't want to watch Bear Grylls dig through bear feces to eat some seeds. But then I came across AMC, and the jingle that comes on before a new movie starts caught my ear. So I tuned in and the instrumental version to the famous Ben E. King song Stand By Me came on with a sad looking man sitting in his car. I had seen parts of this film before, but when I was younger the only thing I learned from it was not to drink castor oil by the bottle. I watched the entire movie all the way through and was taken back. Taken back to my childhood memories. (To tell you the truth, I really became obsessed with it for a while.)

I think the movie grabbed my attention so well because it really made me think. Think about myself, my past, my future, what people thought of me. Basically it made me really take a good, hard look at myself. I was forced into self-realization. Among the first things I realized was that my childhood might seem like it wasn't that long ago, but I quickly did the math and picked up on the fact that 'Geez, has it really been that long ago since Men in Black came out? Or since the time I flipped over the handlebars on my bike?' For the first time in my life, I realized that I was no longer was in my youthful innocense, and immediately reminisced on those times. In the game of life, I had 'passed go without collecting my $200'. I thought of all the friends that I hadn't seen in years; how many of them moved, or were on drugs. I thought of the places we went to or hung out at. One of the things I missed the most were friends that were not all that far away, but we still managed to lose contact with one another. "It happens sometimes. Freinds come in and out of your life like bus-boys at a restaurant." The smell of double bubble for some reason accompanies those times of 'two for flinching'.

I also realized that there are a few things I know I don't want to do for a living, and that maybe being a writer would not be such a bad idea. I always enjoyed english assignments where I had to concoct a story, and work myself into it. So maybe I've found one more career choice that I could use with a history degree, and enjoy doing it. Over the summer it also dawned on me that I really did not care for physical labor, and I am quickly growing tired of being a firewood dealer. It's unbelievably repetitive.

Looking back on childhood has made me realize that I want to do certain things in the future that I can not go to the past and do differently. If I wish that I could have done something differently back then, then I simply tell myself that in the future, I'll do it differently. That's what childhood is all about; learning from your mistakes.

So just like my new favorite movie did, I have had a moment of self-revelation. Only mine was over the span of a few months, not just Labor Day weekend. In the movie, the boys lose their innocense when they find the body, and decide not to take credit for it. My moment like this came on September 11, 2001 when I also discovered the world isn't always as kind a place as I once thought. After that, my little town also "seemed much smaller now".

One of the reasons this film has been so popular is that it really does make people take a look back at their childhood. When people watch it, they briefly remember what it was like to be 12 and at the end of their innocent childhood. For a moment, they relive the memory.

(If you haven't already, check out the Stand By Me website that I created to help make a web presence for the film: http://standbymemovie.com/)