26 Years Ago Today

Every time I walked past the piano today, I was drawn to it. I must have played Imagine ten times. I've opened a page a dozen times, but every time I think back to that day, I am an 18 year old kid, away from home, alone, really for the first time in my life. I had just had a birthday; and there was no party, no sisters no mom, no Bubbe no friends from high school, and no real friends at school either, since I was a year younger than every other freshman and I was technically a sophomore, having graduated high school not just early, but with 36 college credit hours.

I remember I was studying for finals in both Chemistry and Physics and I was syntesizing my study topics. Eventually, the Dipole Moment gave me a cannabis moment, and I took a break. I flipped on the stereo and started to roll a doobie. And suddenly, the DJ stoopped the music in the middle of Hotel California and announced that John Lennon was dead, just as I was ready to lick the glue.

The next think I knew, I was sobbing like a baby, and the hallway outside my door was suddenly full of people, all disbelieving of what they had just heard. I wanted my piano so bad that my fingers ached.

Eventually, the hallway emptied, and eventually I made my way down to the lounge area and into the piano room. I don't know what time I went down to the lounge, but the sun was coming up when I went back to my room.