Drawn from Memory

As soon as I hit my teens, I changed dramatically. I started rejecting trends. I don't know why this happened. It was the 80's and I just could not get into the music. Except for heavy metal and a few clever bands like The Romantics and The Police (You see, 'doo-doo-doo-doo' is far more innovative than 'baby baby'), it didn't rock enough. The trend that peer pressure dictated to me in High School was preppy. It was sort of formal attire with Huey Lewis playing in the background. I hated it. I adopted it once, briefly, to gain a girl's attention. (And one other time to avoid an argument with the football team. Their uniforms had optional leather ties.) Besides being unable to find the part in my hair, I was awkward physically and had trouble dancing. I was bad on the basketball team at first, too, but the next year I did very well. But I rejected dancing. Someone made a comment about how I looked like I was running on the spot. That was it. And I continue to reject it and sit stoically at the bar. To me it appeared strange. (Group dancing. Not strippers.) On the other hand, I was jealous of the ones on the dance floor because they were having fun. Not dancing held me back probably. Preppy girls usually didn't like me. (But punk girls accepted me if I could ever meet one.) When I look back on the 80's, I think mostly of bands that came before. It might also have been the influence of older siblings. I was far less articulate then; almost to the point of embarrassment - though I hid this so well with pretentious diction that I'm surprised I didn't end up writing political speeches or advertising copy instead of attempted truth. It took me a few dozen well chosen books and a lot of years to get to the level I'm at now. So if you're young and struggling to turn a good phrase, just keep trying. And read good books. I was a reject and I don't feel a bit ashamed of it. I looked at school as a joke. I wanted to enjoy my life. Computers were there and video games, but they were more primitive. I showed some talent for computer programming in my class. I could draw well and that made me stand out in a good way. But then that was the first time when people would come up to me and say, 'What are you doing here? You should be out drawing!'
More Statements	Scripts	Songs
© 2010. Statements by David Skerkowski. All rights reserved.