Wake Me When September Ends

It’s funny what runs through your mind when you hear a song.  Especially a song that you associate with a time in your life that wasn’t very pleasant.

Wake Me When September Ends by Green Day has a special place in my heart.  I’ve been married…twice, divorced once.  I’m one of the two people that you know that got married that it didn’t work out for.  It sucked.  I wouldn’t wish that upon anyone that I know, regardless of whether I like them or not. To this day that life event is still one of the worst things to ever happen to me, and also one of the best all in the same breath.  It forced me to leave behind everything that I knew and called familiar and that scared the hell out of me.

I drove across the country to Green Day’s American Idiot album.  The pain and angst that oozes from their music on that album spoke to my sole.  It fueled me to keep driving away the pain.  I drove to California, and probably listened to that album 10 times over the course of those three days.  Wake Me When September Ends drew me in by the extreme pain Billie Joe exudes.  He’d rather sleep away a month of his life rather than have to deal with the pain.  I felt much the same way.

The meaning the song has to me, and the meaning that the video exhibit are on opposite ends of the spectrum.  They may not even be on the same page, but it's funny how a song means different things to different people.  Now that I’m happily re-mariried to the real love of my life, I don’t listen to this song very often.  When I do, it’s just to remind me of where I’ve been and where I’m going.