Welcome Aboard Steemers! You know how they say college is the time to rebel, question authority, and learn from mistakes? Well this Voyage is all about a spontaneous decision I made in college to rebel against my Univirsity. Next Port of Call, Punk Rock!
My junior year at Southern Wesleyan University was a tough year for me. See, while I'm a Christian I'm also not the type of person to follow blindly into a belief system without honestly having faith in it and frequently questioning its authority. Needless to say this made me enemy number one on campus with most of the faculty and students. And just like every stereotype you've heard of kids who grow up in the church they will believe everything their told.
Junior year I spent a lot of time hiking waterfalls, hanging out with my small circle of friends, and dating girls. Yes, more then one. But never at the same time. As it was a small school I earned a reputation with many religion majors as a bit of a man whore. Now, I never slept with most of the girls and some we never even kissed. I just liked taking a girl out on a nice date, having a good time, and then going about our life's. Commitment just wasn't what I wanted at the time. But apparently word got around and I was labeled "The Whore of SWU".
So, to clear my head, one night a friend and I went into downtown Greenville to go see some bands perform. I figured I'd get away and just let it go. My friend Will and I walked into this dingy dive bar of a venue about an hour late. I bought an over priced watered down beer, and found my way to the middle of the crowd right as the next band was coming on.
I'm standing there in the middle of the crowd as they walk onstage. They were decked out in leather and chains, Mohawks, and an attitude that said "I don't give a fuck what you think! This is me and I'm going to do whatever the fuck I want". They didn't have to apologize for who they were. I was jealous of that. From the moment they said their bands name, I was drawn in.
Jonas Sees in Color! It took 5 minutes for me to become a fan and 45 minutes for me to make a radicle decision. After their set the lead singer made a few statements about merchandise in the back and then said "if anyone has a place we can crash tonight it would sure as fuck beat sleeping in the bus!" I knew right away they were staying at my apartment.
I walked to the back and got another beer. I hung around until most of the fans left and I walked up to the band. I told them if they didn't have a place yet that I had a four bedroom apartment on a college campus all to myself and they were welcome to crash. An hour later we were on our way back to SWU.
Not a lot happened that night being as we got back at 3am but the next morning I got to spend some time getting to know the band. We chatted about goals, musical influence, and how the hell I stay sane at a tiny Christian college who at the time frowned upon individualism! I told them I played a lot of campus golf. They had no clue what that was.
See campus golf is were you take old golf clubs, you pick a target, and you smack a tennis ball as hard as you can until you hit the target! Needless to say they were in! So we got dressed, grabs some clubs, and spent about an hour and a half smacking some balls around campus and smoking until we had are fill.
When it was all over we grabbed lunch and the band was on their way. I spent the rest of the year know as the rebel who brought a punch rock band on campus to wreck the place. By then I didn't give a shit. What I cared about was that for the first time I was able to be me! I could be myself and even though I was judged mercilessly for it I made friends who didn't care. Friends I'm still in contact with today. It was the one decision I made that set the course for the person I am today!
