How Do I Say Goodbye to What We Had?

I was sitting in here just now when It's So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday came on. I immediately got depressed and happy at the same time. Am I the only person like that when the song comes on? If you grew up in the 90s then you know what I'm talking about. Just like you couldn't go to a black cookout without The Fresh Prince's Summertime coming on, you couldn't go to a single graduation or funeral without hearing Boyz II Men.

Everybody's favorite part: And I'll taaaaaake with me the memoriiiiies to BE my sunshine after the raaaaii(riffing, riffing riffing)iiiiiiin. (Then you do the serious face) It's so hard to say goodbye to yesterday (high pitched).

What's funny is that back then I thought I could sing, so me and my friends had this fake me out group in middle school. It wasn't official. We didn't have a name or anything. Actually, the group didn't last longer than about a week or two. In true DC Public Schools fashion, we spent many a day playing spades and tonk in class, and one day somebody broke out in song. It might have been me, it might've been another guy. All I know is that two other people joined in and all it took was one pressed girl to say "Y'all don't sound half bad" to boost our little egos.

Because I had a grown man's facial hair at 11, I was naturally selected to do the deep voiced parts. Yep, we sat in class singing at a half whisper decibel because I think deep down we all knew that we couldn't sing, but we kept the lie alive in our hearts for a couple of days.

For me, the dream died around graduation time. It was the 90s so of course we picked It's So Hard... to be our song. Actually, we didn't pick that. Our teachers picked that. When they dragged us all into the auditorium and told us to pick a song, we voted on Tha Crossroads. Second choice went to 5 o' Clock in the Morning. Let that be a lesson to aspiring teachers out there. Don't let DCPS kids pick their graduation song. You don't even wanna know what third pick was (hint: Who's that peepin in my window? Pow, nobody now!).

So anyway, the main song was One Moment in Time and we had a girl in our class who could blow. I'm talking Showtime at the Apollo. The Boyz II Men song was going to be the first round. I'd lied so much about being able to sing that my name came up to sing the song. I got called into the music classroom and the teacher asked me to sing.

I sounded like somebody was beating a squirrel to death. Surprisingly, nobody laughed. The handful of girls that mattered said, "He's just nervous." (No, he's not.) So they went on and planned for me to sing the song with two of my friends. Lucky for me, I went to Ocean City the weekend before and I got really sick. I came to school looking like death and told them that I just couldn't do it. My buddy went up there and sang and I swear it made my tortured squirrel voice sound like Luther Vandross.

I can't remember if people laughed out loud or just quietly to themselves, but they laughed. I was so glad I dodged that bullet. But talking about the whole thing just makes me miss middle school.  But you know what...
I'll take with me the memories to be my sunshine after the rain...