Artist	Song
Meat Loaf	Modern Girl
Green Day	Good Riddance
The Eagles	Hotel California
Edwin	Alive
(Various - Moulin Rouge Soundtrack)	Elephant Love Song Medley
The Ataris	In This Diary
Chris de Burgh	Lady In Red
Blackmore's Night	Diamonds and Rust
Trapt	Headstrong
The Offspring	Hit That
The Ataris	Your Boyfriend Sucks
Dashboard Confessional	For You To Notice

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["Modern Girl" by Meat Loaf - "and she had a little baby boy, born on a stormy night..."]

Actually, I don't think I was born on a stormy night. I was born, though, in May 1985. Two years later though, the biggest storm this part of the world has ever seen would destroy my home...

Now I'm off to school. Not the greatest time of my life, elementary. Bullies, fighting... Junior high. New friends. I discover school dances. A girl asks me to dance once. I run away. Literally.

[Green Day's "Good Riddance"]

Well, time of my life, not really, but I think the ghosts from three years past are finally gone.

Grade ten. Two girls I don't know are doing a song parody.

["Hotel California" by the Eagles]

Something in me remembers this song. later that night I look it up at home.

Grade eleven, I start talking to those girls. One of them will change the way I look at music and life, the other will change the way I look at love.

["Alive" by Edwin]

Somewhere along the way, I managed to plant a new idea in my head, something that would grow to a new person; displacing what I once was.

["Elephant Love Song Medley" from Moulin Rouge plays softly]

It's the outgoing girl from English. I don't love her any more than a friend, but I love the idea I've discovered. I'm officially a hopeless romantic.

["In This Diary" by the Ataris]

Next, my social teacher organizes a getaway for a few days. I have the best time I've ever had. I've been missing something. It's almost torture to go back to my family after being away for just a few days. --
As far as I can tell, she likes me. The other girl, that is. We are friends, and talk all the time at school. I walk home with her often.

Some point along the way I realize she's the most beautiful person I've ever had even remotely near me. I think it's "her", the perfect person just like me that I will be close to for the rest of my life.

Graduation for grade twelve. The prom. I'm in a tux, me and "my" two girls come as friends and have a hell of a good time. The girl I'm chasing is wearing a red dress, and my heart skips a beat when I hear...

["Lady in Red" by Chris de Burgh]

I frantically run over to her and ask her to dance. She says yes. I don't step on her toes too much. The song is just perfect, it's everything I think of her. I feel I'm setting myself up for something big.

Now I'm at the U of A. What's a kid with the humanities award and a love for art and music doing in engineering? Damned if I know, but I wouldn't change a thing if I had the chance.

Another friend gets me through most of the first hellish year. We share songs to work by.

["Hit That" by the Offspring, "Diamonds and Rust" by Blackmore's Night, "Headstrong" by Trapt...]

Sure enough, I was setting myself up for something big that grad night.

["Your Boyfriend Sucks" by the Ataris]

Some say it's better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all. Well, I think I managed lose without ever having loved.

I haven't heard from her since the letter I wrote her.
--

By some luck, my chase for her leads me to a new friend.
She listens to what I have to talk about. She likes my music- the stuff I've showed to everyone else and have had no reply- and she wants to hear more of it.
I found out that she has songs to sing the same way I do. One of them put to words something I've felt since that new idea got stuck in my head.

["For You To Notice" by Dashboard Confessional]

I think she's singing this song for someone, just like I am. I can't tell for who her's is for though. It will take a long time to find out- I don't care how long it takes. Good things are worth waiting for... just as long as they don't disappear.

At any rate, a perfect friend is one you can sit with quietly, her head on your shoulder, quietly watching the campfire.

Thank you for the best summer I've ever had.

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