Throwback

It was twenty minutes to one in the afternoon. I just returned to school after eating lunch at home. We live close to our high school, so  I would walk home every day at lunch break, then return to school after eating.

After dropping my bag on my chair, I would go to one corner of the classroom and start reading---not my textbooks, but a Tagalog romance pocketbook. Such is a high school teenager, our idea of romance is sourced from pocketbooks.

That was seventeen years ago. I was in my second year of high school back then---when life was sweet and fun and romantic. Thirty-plus kilograms later, my life has turned for the worse.

I was reminded of how good my teenage life was when I attended the concert of Secondhand Serenade, The Click Five, and Boys Like Girls last night. It was a great escape from my burned-out life recently. Then, I realized, the songs that we attribute to heartbreak in our teens still work their wonders in our adulthood, albeit no longer for breakups but for the greater challenges of life---work, bills, taxes, and loans.

For one night, I wished I were back in high school, reading a Tagalog romance pocketbook while "Fall for You" played in the background. I longed to hear "Jenny" and "Thunder" for the first time again, to feel that rush of something new and unfiltered. Sometimes, I wish my twenties had never happened at all. I would have rather stayed in my teens.

But these were just wishful thinking. After I left the arena, I was back to the reality of life---piling deadlines and pending obligations. But for everyone like me who grew up with bands like Secondhand Serenade, The Click Five, and Boys Like Girls, for everyone who found comfort and still finds comfort from their songs, that one night is not only a throwback but a recharge.