I Wanna Talk About Me

Did you know that Toby Keith is the original rapper? Yes, Toby Keith the country singer. Yes, a rapper. His song, I Wanna Talk About Me, came out in 2001 and is all out how his girlfriend--or maybe just women in general--always talk about themselves and bring up conversation topics that guys could care less about. (I know I should stick up for my sex, but it's true. We do ramble about seemingly pointless topics. Sorry, guys). Go look up the music video, it's pretty hysterical.
When the song came out, I was 9 years old and listened to and loved country radio just like my dad.  I Wanna Talk About Me was MY song and my dad knew it. So, when he heard the tune start up, he'd turn up the volume to the point where we could feel the car shaking with the base, and smile and chuckle to himself as I began to excitedly squirm in my seat. I knew every word and could keep up with Toby easily. Belting out this fast paced song, with my sunglasses on and my hand flowing in "waves" out the window is a vivid and favorite memory of my childhood.
In case you didn't do the math earlier in this post, I'm 20 years old now--no longer a teen, I know. It's depressing. Well, this song came on when I was on my way home from college two days ago. And just like when I was 9, the radio got cranked up and a huge grin slid onto my face. (No sunglasses, though, since it was 10:30pm. Yeah, I was disappointed too.) But, I still remembered every word! (Don't you wish we could remember educational things like we remember song lyrics? School would be so much easier!) Back to the point. Hearing MY song again reminded me of my dad and my childhood. If I was getting sleepy on that ride home, hearing the familiar tune woke me right up. It was awesome!
The point of this whole thing is that something as simple as a song is the perfect reminder of the simplicity of memories and how they stay with us for a lifetime. Each day we are making memories, whether we're conscious of it or not. I think that we--that is everyone over the age of 14 or so-- tends to get bogged down with the negativity in life. Ten years down the road, you don't want all of these negative things to cloud your memories. Making fun, happy memories seems like a simple task, but the older I get, the harder this tends to be. College is hard and I find my self skipping nights out with my friends to study or get ahead. I'm not saying that I need to stop studying, I'm just saying that I could definitely take a night or two off once in a while. Just like learning all the words to Toby's song was a challenge, focusing on the positive and living a happy life is my new challenge. And all I have to say is, I'm ready! :)