I'm riding on the night train and driving stolen cars. Testing my nerves out of the boulevard. (Day 207)

Artist - Green Day

Song - Castaway

Album - Warning.






Warning was largely overlooked and is criminally forgotten. A neglected masterpiece. Most bands doing the whole "folk-punk/beard punk" style of music should rediscover this album, and realize how much they owe to Green Day.

I still remember when this album came out. October 3, 2000. I can't honestly believe it's over a decade old. But I listened to this album, and this song so much I wore out the album. My dad bought it for me as a birthday present right before he got on a plane to Colorado, and it's the only time I've ever been happy to get a present. (My Birthday is October 4th)

Castaway in particular was a song that a 14 year old kid who never really felt like he fit in too well needed to hear.

You gotta go at it alone. People are only gonna let you down, every single step of the way. But sticking to your guns...while at times you might wonder, "Man, what the hell am I thinking" because things get so rough...eventually it's going to pay off.

It took me six years to shake off everything from my past to take a leap and just go to school. I always promised myself I'd go, but in the back of my head I don't know if I ever believed that.

See, I dropped out of school. Not for lack of love for learning and education. To be honest, I love learning and education. It was the people who surrounded me that made me so incapable of continuing. But now that it's on my dime, I'm going to get what I pay for...and I won't settle for anything less than head of the pack. If I have to keep retaking classes, then that's what I'll do.

And I'm going at it alone.

I put so much faith in other people, and not that that hasn't been a worthwhile experience, but it's time to burn a bridge and not look back at the ashes.

It's strange. This year has been filled with all these monumental changes. In fact, I just found out today I'll be having surgery to shave part of my right knee. A black President, withdrawing from the major cities of Iraq....so many other things.

So it's time to test my own nerves, leave in a lurch and not worry about what's in the past. I think that's the same for everyone.

-Until tomorrow.