On the Wing

“Ugh you and your middle school music!” my cousin Brooke said to me as she stepped over my blue mattress on the floor of my grandmother’s living room.

“I will still like Owl City when I’m in college!” I replied.

“Yeah, sure,” Brooke ended the conversation.

As I sit here, I am listening to my Owl City playlist. So, yeah, jokes on you Brooke.

I make light of the situation, but I don’t think that Brooke’s idea was wrong. We have this assumption that our thoughts, ideas, beliefs, and even morality changes over time.

Surely, I can’t love the same band I did in 6th grade. My music taste must have changed, right? The truth is that I still listen to Owl City on a daily basis. I listened all throughout high school.

Why? I think it is, ironically, because of change. The person I was that night in conversation with Brooke is vastly different from who I am today.

I went from introvert to extrovert, hesitant to confident, and fearful to trusting. I want to believe that those changes are permanent. I want to believe that I’m no longer the Luke of 6th grade — the Luke that called his mom and faked sick to miss field day because he wasn’t sure of who he would talk to.

But if I completely believe that, I am lying to you and myself.