I was browsing through youtube for 90s music, and I was brought back to the summer of 1993. I had just graduated from elementary with the second highest honors in the entire batch, excited to start high school. We didn't have a landline phone yet, the internet was unheard of, and the only way to get in touch with the few friends I made was through snail mail. I hardly knew anyone from the neighborhood and I rarely went out of the house, so what kept me entertained were MTV, HBO, my looney siblings and the radio.
Radio was my best companion. I longed to have a walkman, but all I could afford was some China-made ripoff at a bargain sale at Duty Free. It even had dual headphone outlets, in case I had a friend I wanted to share my music with (I didn't). At home, we had a mini-component system that I turned on instinctively in the morning after my parents left for work and my sister played 56 Games by herself. My brother would still not be awake until noon.
99.5 RT was my favorite station. I would get Dad's latest copy of Reader's Digest and I'd be reading it from cover-to-cover while listening to RIck Dees' Weekly Top 40. I'd sing along to "Dreamlover", try to figure out the lyrics to "Informer", wait forever for "I Would Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That)" to finish, and sing along to all the released hits on the albums Ten Summoners' Tales (Sting), It's About Time (SWV), Beverly Hills 90210 OST (Various Artists), Toni Braxton, and The Bodyguard (mostly Whitney). Rock for me at the time was just Bon Jovi and Aerosmith, which would exponentially multiply in the months and years to come. Want to reminisce with me? Click here.
It was probably the last summer of my childhood. I haven't even met half of the friends I would keep for the rest of my life, knew nothing about boys save for the few ones I met at the Ateneo Children's Theater about a couple of years back (they're now superstars in their own right :P), and romance was just plain uninteresting.
But it was all good. Radio was there to acquaint me with love stories I have yet to relate to, from "Weak" to "Freak Me" to "One Last Cry". I danced to "Can't Get Enough of Your Love" with my door and sang to my stand fan, and imagined what a school dance would feel like. (I would end up bringing my brother as a date.) My world was all in that black box of frequency waves, and it was big enough for me :)
I went on a roadtrip a few weekends back and I listened to RT for the first time in a long time. After a gazillion reformats, it was back to the old RT I grew up with. While on the SCTEX, I heard the strains of Def Leppard's "Two Steps Behind" and I sudddenly remembered the 14-year old girl that I was -- smart, secure, solid, and sure of herself.
That bright and promising 14-year-old is still here, reminding me that it only takes a minute of my precious time to turn around.
Time to dance with the door and sing to the fan again :)
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