Pearce 1 Dylan Pearce Bedell CAS138T 21 February 2014 Passion Blog 3: Soco Amaretto Lime The song Soco

Amaretto Lime by my all time favorite band, Brand New, has a mellow beat and lyrics that instantly make a person think of my hometown. The four members of Brand New all live within five minutes of my house, so when their fame expanded to MTV music videos and concerts in New York City they became idols to many teenagers across town. Soco Amaretto Lime became particularly important for their fans because it discussed hanging out on the overpass with friends, driving your first car on empty all the time without a care of breaking down, and walking the streets until all hours of the night during summertime- things that are all too familiar to anyone who has attended MacArthur High School. As a result, at the schools Senior Variety Show at the end of every year, one brave soul will usually hop on stage with his or her acoustic guitar and sing the lyrics Im gonna stay eighteen forever, so we can stay like this forever. Since Soco Amaretto Lime truly makes you want to be a teenager in the suburbs of Long Island forever, it always makes me think about the last few things I did right before leaving for college- leaving that idolized overpass, that shoddy car parked in front of my house, and those summertime streets for the first time in my eighteen years. The night before I left for Penn State, my family and I sat down and ate Italian heroes (for those of you not from New York, a hero is the same thing as a hoagie or sub) from my

Pearce 2 favorite restaurant, Phils Pizza. The food was incredible, as always, and it was a great last meal because I knew I would never eat a chicken parmesan sandwich that tasty in college. Thereafter, five of my closest friends came over to reminisce and hangout for the last time. Of course they brought a pie of specialty slices of pizza from Spazzos- the trademark place to eat at for all MacArthur students during lunch periods. And for those wondering, I did indulge in even greater quantities of Italian food. After stuffing our faces, we went up to my room and played Mario Party a video game from the 20th century that probably hadnt been touched in over a decade. The second our hands grabbed the Nintendo 64 controllers, we all felt like we were eight years old again. And to be honest, the game was more fun than ever, even with its miserable graphics and ridiculous objectives. As we screamed at the TV each time one of us got eaten by Bowser and talked about all the great times we had in my house over the years, I continued to finish packing for the following day. This situation continued until everyone finally left at 3am and I was able to lie down. Even at that time, I just rolled around and thought about leaving my hometown in the morning, barely sleeping at all throughout the entire night. Consequently, the next morning I woke up absolutely exhausted. With no energy left, I somehow managed to drag all of the duffle bags, suitcases, and boxes outside to my fathers truck. Afterward I went back inside to say my last goodbyes to my two dogs and my brother. As for the dogs, I can almost guarantee they knew what was going on. Dakota had the widest, saddest eyes Ive ever seen covering his face and Otis would not stop leaping onto me with his ninety-pound body. Each one of them licked me constantly and it felt like they understood that I was depressed leaving home; I truly believe dogs have a sixth sense. As for my brother, he gave me a big hug and an envelope with two hundred dollars telling me to enjoy the first couple of weeks at school. I realized that I was able to say goodb ye to all of the necessary people within

Pearce 3 the last couple of days, except for my best friend and neighbor, Kristen. Unfortunately, she had been out really late the night before so I couldnt see her then and I didnt expect her to be awake when I was leaving at the crack of dawn. However, as I started to walk out the door I spotted Kristen sprinting across the street in her pajamas. As it turns out, she had set her alarm extra early to be able to say goodbye to me. After chatting for a few minutes and hugging her goodbye, I knew everything that had to be done before leaving was officially complete. Even though I was a little sad to depart and nervous to start over in Pennsylvania, I knew I was ready to leave the great town that Soco Amaretto Lime advocated so highly. I no longer wanted to stay eighteen forever.