This one time, in youngsville, it never rained.

Back when we were young, it wasn’t quite so cold. The summers were pretty intense, but not enough to break our spirits.

Back when we were young, alcohol was a lot more potent than it is now… and movies made a lot less sense but were a lot more fun.

When we were young no road was too long/dark/narrow to travel. 36 hour drives were measured in terms of how many CDs were needed, how many cans of coke than how much time. There was pleasure in the pain. When were young, there was no fear.

Back when we were young, we had long hair and we wore it like warriors wear their armor. It was our force field against mediocrity. We let it rest clumsily over our heads and shoulders so that when the wind blew the wild strands would dance like gypsies under a full moon. We didn’t shave, when we were young, the stubble added to our street cred and the  babes loved how tough we looked. We never fretted the calluses on our hands from lifting canned goods to their specific shelves all night either, they gave our hands the rough and rugged feel the ladies loved against their skin.

When we were young our cars had woofers and tweeters and crossovers. I knew the names of every damn woofer in the market and the exact decibel rating. We used to ride with the music on full while you rolled up the last pre-class joint as well as the first post-class one. We drove drunk, when we were young. We drove drunk well when we were young.

We ran up our phone bill into the stratosphere because when we were young love seemed invulnerable to the ravages of distance. Love seemed incorruptible, I felt invincible and she… she seemed divine. She seemed like she was crafted for me and to me she was meant to belong. Even in yellow she could take my breath away. And then we crumbled to pieces and I learned that when they say love is blind they actually mean that it turns us blind.

We climbed mountains everyday to get to class when were young, and when we were young we could work all day and party all night and not break a sweat until Sunday afternoon. When we were young we passed up on free food but never on pussy or a ride. Things needed to make a lot less sense to be believed when we were young for in youth we had with us the legendary power of not knowing. When we were young we didn’t fear learning our lessons the hard way.

When we were young I loved mine very much. And you loved yours just the same. But we aren’t young anymore and we know that hearts actually do break and that when they do the pain is enough to scare you into making more mistakes than you can ever rectify.

When we were young we did throw caution to the wind and risked all for one. We drove fast and we danced fast and we lived faster still. We loved like madmen and with an intensity that is granted by youth and youth alone because when we were young the ones we loved defined more than the histories we bear for as long as we  live, they defined us.
 But we are young no longer and it suits no one to go whimsically Apache on our own asses in the hunt for that same old feeling of not knowing enough to give a damn about broken bones or promises or hearts. We are older now, they are older now and despite how different they may have been from each other, all women are essentially the same.

Except for when we were young.