The Best Days Of My Life

I was listening to the radio the other day while I was getting my run in and heard an oldie but a goody. How many of you remember the song "Summer of 69"? What a great song that was when it came out in the summer of 1985 by Bryan Adams. The lyrics state "Oh, when I look back now, that summer seemed to last forever. And if I had the choice, Yeah I would always want to be there. Those were the best days of my life." After hearing that song, I couldn't help but think of all the different songs that have that ability to "take us back" to another place in our life. In fact Kenny Chesney  has a song titled "I Go Back" and in the song it states "We all have a song that somehow stamps our lives. Takes us to another place and time..." That is exactly what I was thinking. I believe  most of us have those songs that bring back some good memories.

I started thinking about the songs I remember while growing up and what warm memories I have of those days. I'm sure that I will be giving my age away here but when I was in grade school, Led Zeppelin released "Stairway to Heaven". I still remember shooting pool in my parents basement and cranking that music (parents weren't home) as loud as it would go. When I graduated high school, Bob Seger came out with his "Live Bullet" album and I remember cruising down Woodward Ave. in Detroit with the power booster shaking the windows and my friends belting out "Turn the Page". Wow were those awesome times.

I hope you have taken a minute to think about some of the songs that "take you back" and the great memories you share with others. When most of you students were starting school, the Macarena by the Bayside Boys came out. Ask one of your teachers about that one and have them show you the dance that goes with that song. Maybe the songs that you guys remember a little better are "Moves like Jagger" by Maroon 5 or "Call Me Maybe" by Carly Rae Jepsen. Whatever song it is that brings back those good memories, I hope you will hang on to them. It is always nice to hear them especially when the weather starts getting warmer (very soon) and you have the windows down and you are blasting the speakers.

I would like to go back to the "Summer of 69" song for a minute and think about that one line; "Those were the best days of my life". It is easy to think those were the good old days and everything seemed to be so much easier and laid back. I'll bet that many of you students are probably thinking that back then you didn't have the responsibilities that you have now. For example, which college should I chose or which job to work at once you graduate. However, think of all the neat things we have in our world today that is making life so much easier. The smart phones that we all use were "space age" toys when I was growing up. All of us have instant access to any kind of information that we need. The internet makes the world a lot smaller. We can chat with friends all over the world, learn new languages, instantly get any answer we want in a nanosecond. We can download music whenever we want and stream live video of anything we want right on our phone. Those are just a few of the technological things that are making our life so much simpler today. Think of the great opportunities you have here at Vantage and the abundance of job opportunities that are available to each of you as you graduate.

I realize that many of you have problems that you have to deal with on an everyday basis, I get that. I know that life can seem really tough and you wonder when will this get better. I want to tell those of you in that situation that if you have taken the first step to seek help or have started talking with someone about your troubles, then you have started on the path that can lead you to "the best days of your life." I hope all of you realize that. Those of you that are struggling with problems and haven't talked with anyone, please stop in and see me. No matter if everything is going great right now or if you are struggling with problems, I hope you will believe that today truly can be the best days of your life.