This is It. (p1)

Have you ever had one of those moments when pretty much everything in the world seems right? When I think of those moments, I can't seem to remember them without visualizing them cut and pasted into an intro for a cute family sitcom like Full House, complete with an energetic, feel-good theme song. I was reminded of these moments tonight through one such potential theme song-- Chris Brown's "Forever":

It's like I waited my whole life
For this one night
It's gon be me you and the dance floor
Cuz we only got one night
Double your pleasure
Double you fun
And dance forever

Despite the fact that it steals some of its clearly sophisticated lyrics from Double Mint gum, I have to admit I love this song. And tonight I think I figured out why.

I think that when I hear "Forever," it reminds me of the sharp contrast between my teenage years and college. Earlier this semester, I realized that while I know I enjoyed life as a younger child, there was a point somewhere in junior high or high school that I really stopped having almost any fun at all. While I don't know that I was clinically depressed and I did have a good deal of attempted "fun," I was actually mostly just surviving, a lot of that stemming, I believe, from an increasingly messy and painful family life. This is not so much a complaint against my family or anyone else for the difficulties of high school. It's much more of a prayer of thanksgiving for my time at UNC. UNC was the first time since puberty that I can remember thinking, "This is life. This is as good as it gets. This is what you were made for."

Ever have moments like that?

To be continued...