Good Riddance/Oh How the Years Go By

Since I went to such a small high school, graduation was a very personal affair. I had 15 people in my class, and at the ceremony they did a montage of pictures of each of us growing up. As a class, we could choose what song would go behind the montage, and in a way, this was our class song. When the time came for the class to choose the song, I was all about using "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)" by Green Day. It was the year of that song. I had discussed this song with most of the people in the class and everyone seemed to dig the idea. The homeroom teacher asked us to bring in songs that we may like to use. So I brought in my Nimrod album. The homeroom teacher took one look at the cd, saw that it said the word 'Nimrod' and told me that we would not be able to use that song. After all, it was by a secular artist (*gasp*). Rather, someone chose for us and the song that went behind the montage was "Oh How the Years Go By" by Amy Grant. I was so devastated, and cursed myself for not recording the Green Day song to a tape and bringing that to school instead. Still, in my mind "Good Riddance" was my senior song.

Last night when I went to work out, I was alone in the gym. Which translates to mean that I could turn the tv on whatever channel my little heart desired. I felt like listening to music while I ran, and since we all know that there is never any music played on MTV or Vh1, I put the tv on MTV2. I think it was a commercial, but by the time I got back on the treadmill and started running, a video came on. It was Eminem. An old Eminem song, from The Eminem Show album. I had not heard the song, or any other Em song since I microwaved my cd's. Wow. I think this was about 2 years ago now. I was at a changing point in my life when I stopped my infatuation with Em's music. I realized that listening to angry music all the time was making me an angrier person. As the video was playing, I found that I still knew every, single word to that song. I listened to that album, the Marshall Mathers LP, and the 8 Mile soundtrack so many times that it makes me sick. I still say that he is incredibly talented, but the negative effect that the music had on me was not worth it. Last night, I was appalled at the words that I was singing in my head...and I thought to myself, "Oh, how the years go by..."

I snapped out of it when the video ended and next up was MTV2 Hip-Hop. I jumped off the treadmill and changed it to The Simpsons.