Poop Shute

To The Journals!

I'm currently packing up stuff to move it to Meg's parents' house. While I'm gone this summer Meg will be staying there along with most of our belongings.

In my packing I came across some journals from younger days. Yes, from that time long ago when the phrase Y2K was on everybody's lips. A time when at any given moment there was somebody somewhere on this planet that had Hit Me Baby One More Time or Livin La Vida Loca stuck in their head. I am speaking, of course, of 1999-2000.

As I skimmed through one journal in particular I rediscovered a fondness for copying down quotes that were interesting and/or funny. Here's a few:

"Do not run away; let go. Do not seek, for it will come when least expected." --Bruce Lee

"Even with a paddle, Sh*t Creek is not a nice place to be."
--Bill Maher

"Never hate your enemies. It affects your judgement."
--Al Pacino in Godfather III

I also used to write these really bad poems. Probably the same crappy angsty garbage that most people write when they are in that high school/college age range. Most of it is terrible, but once in a while my younger self surprises me with something that's not so bad. Here's one:

Untitled

Past the point where it's new
and interesting
Still shy of where it gets easy
That'll be the day...

I know, it's not amazing or anything, but it's got a kind of simple rawness that most of my other young poetry lacked. I think the biggest difference between this and the rest of the poems from my younger days is that they all seemed to be trying too hard. This one seems to be unguarded, and an honest attempt to reveal something about myself instead of dressing myself up in colorful robes of language that I can hide behind.

Am I writing about love? A specific girl? Or Life in general? At this point I couldn't tell you exactly what was going through my mind when I wrote it, but I'm betting I had just been through one of those experiences that destroys an illusion or two. The fact that I answer my own thought about "easy" with "that'll be the day" tells me that I finally hit that age when one realizes nothing ever gets easy.

Disillusionment is a b*tch.