Bad hair, too much make up and neon clothes... how I miss the 80s!
I have noticed that today is turning into an 80s day – from the music I’m listening to at work to some stuff I’ve seen online to the emails I’ve received, lots of things today have something to do with the 80s.
1985 was a long time ago, over 20 years, but somehow events from this year and the rest of the 80s have shaped my life in different ways, subtle ways. I started (and finished) High School in the 80s and this was a time when I grew up, took more responsibility for my life and made some amazing discoveries about myself. For example, I decided to join the Drama department – even though I’d never really done anything like this before. I just heard that the cast parties were awesome so there I was… I ended up spending the rest of my academic life in theatres and surrounded by actors and dancers. I gained a new perspective on musicals and it led to a love of the live theatre that survives to this day.
I also noticed that most of my friends are people I met during these days – and if I met them later, it was usually because they were introduced to me by someone I met in High School! I have a handful of friends from elementary school but the guys I miss the most and would most like to spend some time with now are mainly guys and gals I met in the era of Pretty in Pink and Some Kind of Wonderful.
Movies will never be like the movies were in the 80s. I have far too many favorites to mention as it was the decade when I was more movies than at any other time. I particularly liked all those teen movies that seemed abundant at the time and still have a very soft spot for Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, The Breakfast Club and anything that had a top-selling soundtrack.
The music is of course another big 80s thing, as I suspect is the case with most people my age. Sometimes all it takes is just one song and POOF! I’m back in a particular party or something. These old songs were certainly the soundtrack of my life and I loved and lost to the beat of many, many unforgettable songs.
Speaking of loving and losing, it was during the 80s that I started having “proper” boyfriends and when I discovered that some boys are better kissers than others. I’m not saying any names! But it was a time when I sort of found out that I liked being in a couple and led to me pretty much having a boyfriend ALL the time. I just couldn’t stay single! Sometimes I’d even move on to the “next” boyfriend before having the decency to tell the current boyfriend that he was history… I didn’t always get the boy, though – and these years included my deepest heartaches whenever the object of my affections didn’t even know I was alive.
All this pain and heartache brought out the writer in me. Now, I’d always kept diaries and journals, as I’ve mentioned before, but during these years I really, really wrote it all down: my loves, my hates, my feelings, my angst and my agony. I was of course a teenager but I doubt that many teenagers document their emotions as well as I did – I have around 20 notebooks and journals filled with the product of all this emotion! I also wrote stacks of poems (usually about boys that didn’t love me back) and imagined myself as some sort of author in the future. Guess that’s why I keep a blog these days!
When the decade was over I was in college and doing some real growing up. I still loved the theatre, I hung out with my bestest friends and was a serial monogamist. But the carefree, exciting and whirlwind rollercoaster that was my late teens was sort of coming to a close along with the decade. The 90s for me were all about finding my path and following it and brought the biggest changes of my life: working in
I really miss those days!
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