I Needed a Hurricane in 1995

No not the drink. 1995 was not a good year for me. I was in college and was very lonely and depressed. I had two girlfriends dump me rather unceremoniously and I had serious doubts about my self worth. My life was my college courses and my sh** job as a grocery store sacker and restroom cleaner. Come Friday the loneliness really set in. I would stare out my window and see other collegiates get in their cars and leave for a weekend of family, intoxication, and intercourse. What did I have to look forward to? Asking customers if they wanted plastic or paper and wheeling their purchases out to their car and treated like a second class citizen. However that was my position in life and there was nothing I could do about it for the time being. After all what was I in college for if not to improve my standing in life? One night I sat in my dorm looking through the Public News and an advertisement caught my eye. "Planet Shock *sucha sucha date at sucha sucha time and sucha sucha place*" When I saw the show was on a night I had off from work my heart started racing. I saw Planet Shock a couple of years prior in a dive bar in Beaumont, TX, called Fuzz Gun. I was taken in by the mix of metal and Bob Marley. The night of the show came and as par for the course I couldn't find a soul to go with me so I said f*** it and went on my own. I made sure my 1986 Chevy truck with no air conditioning had sufficient oil and air in the tires to get me to Houston and back. I drove from Huntsville to Houston, at night, on Interstate 45. I got to the venue (now some stupid restaurant) and got in. I wasn't old enough to drink so I just sat in the corner by my lonesome until Planet Shock took the stage. After a few riffs I was up in the crowd. The fire had been lit. I forgot why I was miserable. I couldn't remember what I had been feeling sorry for myself for. All I knew was at that moment I was genuinely happy! I started jumping up and down with everyone else in the pit. I got hit in the face, the neck, the back but I didn't care. I felt no pain only happiness as did everyone else. I got shoved into people and I shoved people into other people. Despite people being punched, kicked, and knocked around there was no hate it was, in a strange sense love. Not love for each other but love for the moment. At that moment people were bouncing around but having the time of our lives. All our troubles, our worries, our cares were but a distant memory. Then came their song Hurricane. This was my all time favorite. "I take them head on I could be dead wrong!" I jumped higher than anyone in the crowd during the chorus. As I walked out of the dive bar about two hours later I was feeling beaten and bruised. That's how I knew things were going to be okay. I drove back to Huntsville with a smile on my face despite the fact that in about 7 hours I would be asking "would you like paper or plastic with that ma'am!"