7 years later

The boys got back together a while ago now, it's weird I never wrote about it but it's cause I was too busy. My best friend and I were at the Hollywood show in June 2013, a month after we graduated college at 21. FOB was actually back together before we graduated. Also saw them again last March 2016 with my fiance. Infinity on High is at the 10 year anniversary mark now. I can't believe it. I see myself at 13 listening to FUTCT. Blasting TTTYG and not really listening to it much till I was 17. That was when FAD was released. I remember how excited I was when I heard Brendon Urie's voice on 20 Dollar Nosebleed. I remember every FOB show, every festival. Being so young and experiencing that with my best friends. Meeting Andy when I was 16. Then after the hiatus, meeting Joe at one of The Damned Things shows. Meeting Patrick at his solo tours. Seeing Black Cards. My friends doing the same across the country. I was there...from the start, and FOB knows they're lucky to have a strong fan base. They got on MTV because of their fans. They became big by word of mouth. They changed, we all do. I forgot how it felt when they went on hiatus 7 years ago. Probably cause I mainly listen to other bands. But we survived, all of us. Long live the car crash hearts. I wore my clandestine fingerless gloves last week cause it was cold. Stay pretty Chicago. I still love that sweater.

Here's To You

This is not meant to assume or speculate anything. Don't think; just read. And you will understand.

Here’s to you.

The band who would rather play video games and shows for us than climb up the cliche, superficial Hollywood social ladder.

Here’s to the band who taught us every swear word and sarcastic remark we know, and are damn proud of it.

Here’s to the band who left our ears ringing for days.

Here’s to the band who showed us that there is real, and real exists.

Here’s to the band who reserved fist pounds, hugs, laughs, and smiles for us, even after grueling tour schedules and running on less than two hours of sleep.

Here’s to the band who wrote our national anthem.

Here’s to the band who never tried to save us,
But ended up doing so anyway.

Here’s to you.

Here’s to the band whose shows made us feel like we were home again.

Here’s to the band who aimed for our ears, but hit us in the hearts.

Here’s to the band whose music has been part of every moment of our shitty adolescent lives, from the God-awful first day of high school to when we finally got to graduate and leave.

Here’s to the band who’s been with us through every loss and every victory. Feeling like dying and feeling like flying.

Here’s to the band who understood all of this without us having to say a word.

Here’s to the band who didn’t just get us through bad breakups and tough times, but kept us alive when everything else failed to.

Here’s to the band who loved us back.

Here’s to the band who loves us back.

Here’s to the boys who will never grow up,
and to the boys who are ok with that.

This one’s not for the boys who walked away from the world when life got too hard, but for the ones who never gave up, never sold out, and never let us down.

It’s not for the ones who threw it away,
But for the ones who held on and stuck around.

This one’s for the boys who know that nothing will ever be ok,
And the boys who will bruise for what they believe in anyway.

Hurley, Stump, Trohman, and Wentz,
Who, like us, started off as underdogs when life didn’t make sense.

This one’s for the boys who didn’t put up with the Liars and Fakes,
We were the kids who couldn’t catch a break.

Because the world said “Killing dreams is what we do,”
And, “Don’t bother trying, we’ll take the best of you.”

The only reason I wrote these lines
Is to say everything I’ve wanted to say all these years in time.

You are the band and the boys who made it.
You are the kids who made it.
We are the kids who made it.

A thousand times over.
Ten billion times over.
And still, it wouldn’t be loud enough.

-jy
2/10/10
also posted on: www.beingjac.tumblr.com, www.beingjac.blogspot.com