1999 was a pivotal year for me. So much was happening in and outof my life that it was a whirlwind of activities and stuff, that at times felt like a speeding runaway train and I was just in it for the ride. I had just turned seventeen in March and was a senior in high school. I had a full track and field scholarship to The University of Florida down in Gainesville. I had just won my second State wrestling championship in my division and had just broken up with my girlfriend of two years, Patty O'Neil, with whom I thought I could never live without, but soon found out I could, quite nicely actually.
Some of my beliefs in life, authority and grownups and things I held dear came into question. President Clinton was on trial for having sex, or not having sex, with a young lady in his office. The fact that a president of the United States, the most powerful man in the world, could be brought to trial for that and be humiliated in front of the world, rocked my core beliefs in America and what we stood for. Mommy always said to us, don't wash your dirty laundry in public. I never understood what that meant until we all would be sitting in front of the television night after night watching the replays of the President of the United States, reduced to having to defend himself for something that was so private, something that had nothing to do with American security or his ability to lead our nation. So, what's it matter how many women he fucks, as long as he could lead our nation and lead it right. I mean, that's all that matters right?
Perhaps I felt this way because I liked him so much and I didn't know much about life in general. I've learned since that sometimes when you like someone so much, the issues become a little muddy.
But there was nothing that prepared me for what happened in 99. There are few, if any things in life that one can say with certainty has changed their lives' so dramatically. Something that ten, twenty or fifty years later forges the way they think, the way they live, the way they love or don't. That keeps them up for years without a wink of sleep at night, thinking about that which changed their life forever. I carry it with me all the time. And I know I will carry it to my grave. It causes me to laugh out loud in the best of times... and silently weep into my pillow in the worst.
Oh, one more thing. That summer I learned how to love. I learned that if it's real love, true love, then no matter what, it can never be wrong.
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Cape May
RomanceAfter meeting again at their grandmother's funeral, after eleven years of not seeing each other, sister and brother Gabby and Bobby reminisce about their past. Old feelings and memories come alive which they thought were gone. A story of love and pa...
