Bryan Adams

Before my life was completely turned upside down by events beyond my control, I went to see Bryan Adams in concert. Twice. I was trying to be just another teenage girl, and in those moments, lost in his music, I was. I was romantic, wanting to believe in happily-ever-after, knights in shining armour, true love, all of it. Bryan's songs spoke to that girl inside of me. They made me believe, helped me hold on to the dream that someone would love me.

Then I grew up. Life pressed in, I pressed on, and as the years passed I found myself distancing myself from this amazing Canadian who had given my young heart hope. So many of his songs were about love, being in love, falling in love, and I realized such things were really not for me. Wishing and hoping were efforts in futility, I decided, and sucked it up as best I could.

Yesterday, my friend Jim was visiting. During the course of the visit he asked me to check out this video by Bryan, and without much thought, I did. When the song finished, there was a connecting link to one of the first songs I ever heard by him. Distracted, I clicked the link.

This link : Straight From The Heart

And suddenly I was that teenage girl again. Without warning I was shot back in time to a moment when I believed in every possibility for myself, before the world took my innocence, before life taught me what happens to dreamers, romantics, and those who think being a good person is good enough. It made me cry because in that moment I realized that girl is still there, still inside me, still believing, still waiting, still hoping. I should have known, because I have never settled. Despite what the world has told me, I have held on, held out hope, held fast in some small way to the belief that love conquers all, that my hero is out there, that I can have my happily ever after.

Perhaps that makes me a fool, to believe in that which I have never seen, which has never been shown to me. Deep down, I think I have always accepted that.