I grew up listening to country music.
All my life.
I knew nothing but country music.
That's what my parents liked, so that's what I liked.
Then my mom started listening to more soft rock.
That's what she liked, so that's what I liked.
From the day I was born, till I was about twelve years old.
That's all I listened to.Country and soft rock.
Yeah, I know.
Then we moved and things were different.
Mommy and Daddy started fighting.
They were separated, but lived in the same house.
Mommy lived upstairs, Daddy lived downstairs.
Each did their own thing and stayed out of the other's way.
So the children did too.
I departed from my parents a little more.
Broke away from their only means of music.
I turned the station on the radio one day.
A song called 'Boulevard Of Broken Dreams' was on.
I hated it.
I couldn't stand it.
My older sister loved it.
She'd play it so loud.
So very loud.
I'd turn it down.
She'd turn it up.
It went on and on.
Day after day.
I hated that song dearly.
I hated the people that sang it.
And then I heard another one of their songs one day while cleaning my room.
Not long after I'd turned thirteen.
It was 'Holiday.
'I caught myself actually singing to the chorus and swaying to the music.
It was then I looked up at my little sister in mortal horror and shock.
She looked the same.
She hated them too, but that's just cause she was only about eight or nine.
But she, too, had been caught enjoying the song.
So she had a mock expression of mine on her face.
"It's a catchy tune.
"I lied.She agreed.
I learned why I hated that song and that band so much.
Those people wrote a song that expressed how I felt after I'd moved into that house.
My family had been so close just days before.
So very close.
Then we moved there.
And I was alone.
I walked alone.
So I hated it.
But I began to listen to it more often after realizing exactly why I hated it.
And then it grew on me.
Instead of hating it, I loved it.
It described me.
It knew me.
So I loved it.
And I listened to it.
Soon I discovered who the band was.
Green Day.They were truly amazing.
They were my first CD.
They were my first poster.
They were my first rock band.
I began to fall in love with all of their songs.
They were my escape from the rest of the world.When everyone else seemed to turn their back on me and I was alone, I was comforted.
I was never truly alone while listening to their music.And then sometimes, I started to discover for the first time, I actually wanted to be alone.
That never happened before.
I loved the company of others.
But that had changed.And Green Day's song "I Wanna Be Alone" fit perfectly for that.
We lived in that house for nearly two years.
I hated that house at first.
It caused so many problems.
But by the time my dad had left and Mommy said it was time to move again, I cried.
I cried like a baby.
I loved that house.
Almost two years.
That's the longest we'd ever stayed in one place.
I'd grown so attached.
I had a lot of great memories there.
I had discovered the best band on Earth there.
Why would I wanna leave?
Sometimes it still gets to me.
I'm sixteen now.
Well, I will be.
January 25th.I still miss that place dearly.
So many great times.
So many great experiences.
Sometimes I could still cry.
Sometimes I wanna go back.
It's still empty, that house.Nobody lives there.
My grandpa lives nearby and drives by everyday.
He says it stays empty.
It's not like it's haunted.
So why does nobody live there?
I don't know.
Maybe it's just waiting for me.
Waiting for me to come home.
And it's all thanks to Green Day.
