When was it when we first met? All of us?

Those days so long ago a Polaroid seems less hazy than what’s in my mind’s eye. Those seconds that ticked and the recess bell rang, and we never knew it was just like quitting time in so many years to come. Those days that the latest Transformer was all and everything on our minds. Seeking they approval from superiors by way of report cards. We didn’t know then we were trained to be servants of abstract letters and cared less. Lunchtime promised fifteen more minutes on the playground.

Was it later in the hallways passing by? Bored to tears with classes but the promise of an icy beer and a packed bar seemed to be what we went for. The music was lousy but the company great. Those nights spent with holes in our pockets while our heads went straight to the clouds.

Those days we took the world by storm and cried “Stand and Deliver!”

We sang until the night’s end and the stars slept way before we did. We barely had a cent for gas, but we had that one bottle we passed around. We talked for hours and cringed at the dead wake of drudgery in general.

We wanted to own the Earth. With song, muse; our fists, our wits; our degrees and hopes of large piles of money set before us like Kings and Queens of old. We raised our glasses to none but us, for Royalty bowed before no one.

Somehow we went our ways when we found ourselves in need of more money.

I don’t know what happened to us. Marriage, children; prison, addictions; for most of us stuck in jobs we hate.

Blow the dust off our yearbooks and realize those days are long since foreign to us.

Long since forgotten.

That bills replaced those report cards, and mortgages weigh more than diplomas.

These times we realize we’d never be film stars, pro ballers, or even happy with our jobs.

These times we ask where did all that joy go and try so desperately to pack it into our children instead.

These nights that toss restless, and surge with hidden rage for arrogant bosses and debt with numbers that should be our paychecks.

When did we realize we aren’t free?

When did we sell our dreams for what little before us?

I wonder when it is we start to teach our children to give up these dreams just like we did.