Monday, July 29, 2019

A Little Rock n' Roll

Written By: Ben

To start off this blog post I was curious if y'all actually prefer the weekly posts or the longer gaps between each post? I am still going to write in it once a week I think, but I am curious what the general opinion is.
This post will probably not be as long as some of the others, but we will see what happens. In fact it will most likely be a ton shorter.  This post was also written a week after my last one just in case someone decides to try and give me crap about it being longer than a week. (Seeing as it won't be uploaded until the morning after it was written.)

This last week was a long one if I am being honest, mainly because I was sick for about five out of the seven days. I just started some antibiotics a few days ago and they already seem to be making a huge difference. Weeks like these help me realize that I am out here for a reason and although they are hard they also give me the strength to continue on the journey. Truthfully a lot of things help me continue pushing forward, and many of them are so insignificantly small that one would think little to nothing of them. 
A story or some background to help express my thoughts. Ever since I can remember my family has loved listening to, and enjoying music. I remember dancing around and goofing off as a small kid to a wide variety of music. I love just about every type of music, and this is very apparent as you scroll through my phone. Although I enjoy a ton of music, there are certain songs and genres that will always have a place in my heart. One of these is Classic Rock, now I know that classification is super vague, so perhaps some examples: Van Halen, Bon Jovi, Journey, CCR, Scorpions, Def Leppard, Kansas, Guns N' Roses, Styx, and a whole lot more.
 Anyways I remember countless times when Dad and I would be off on some adventure jamming out to Classic Rock. My Father instilled in me a love for this era of music and truly all eras of music. Now that I have given a tad of background, I want to share a more specific experience. That being said I have had several experiences that are very similar to the one I am going to share.
 In High School I had a close group of friends, and this group of buds and I would come home to my house for lunch during my Junior and Senior years. We had many after school activities together, and hung out often. Hence we were in the car driving from place to place A LOT. Although I no longer remember where we were going or what we were doing; I remember one night during senior year we were driving to some forlorn destination. For whatever reason we weren't in the greatest spirits and weren't really chatting or being our normal selves. Well after a few moments of pained silence I plug in my phone to the old cassette tape adapter and hit shuffle (just to give us some noise and perhaps pass the time). Wouldn't you know a certain song comes on over the speakers... "Livin on a Prayer" by Bon Jovi. (I am certain that if you were to play this song in a crowded room well over 80% would sing along to the chorus, maybe not out loud but definitely in their heads). It takes only moments for the small group of us to have the car just about bouncing off of its axles as we all but scream along to the lyrics. In an instant the sour mood and somber spirits were obliterated by a song that just has a way of making the listener forget about their cares and "rock out". Even now when that song comes on, I still cant help but jam and poorly attempt to sing along. Now Bon Jovi may not be your cup of tea, but I guarantee that there is a song out there that just gets you in a good mood or pumps you up.
Sometimes it is the tiny things that get us through our days, even and perhaps especially the hard ones. I can't express my gratitude enough for the little miracles that I experience everyday. Although this experience is at times freakishly hard, I wouldn't change it, not because I don't wish things were different, but because I would be different if I didn't have the experiences I do. We all have hard days, indeed days where we wonder if there isn't perhaps an easier way, its days like this I advise us to enjoy the magnificently insignificant.
 The pictures above were of when my parents and went to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame near downtown Cleveland. One can easily assume that I was immensely enjoying myself!

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