{"id":274,"date":"2015-10-06T18:39:31","date_gmt":"2015-10-06T18:39:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/?p=274"},"modified":"2015-10-06T18:39:31","modified_gmt":"2015-10-06T18:39:31","slug":"being-17-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/?p=274","title":{"rendered":"Being 17 Again"},"content":{"rendered":"

A\u00a0couple of weeks ago, my husband and I went to a Van Halen concert.\u00a0 When I met my husband, Van Halen was one of his favorite bands.\u00a0 So when I saw they were coming to our area, I bought tickets for our 26th w\"12036443_964036220328924_9091251965033496584_n\"<\/a>edding anniversary.<\/p>\n

It’s been\u00a0over fifteen years since I’ve been to a rock concert.\u00a0 The last one I went to with a\u00a0friend\u00a0was full of teenagers and young adults smashed together for several hours\u00a0trying to get as close to the stage as possible.\u00a0\u00a0This concert was very different. \u00a0Why you might ask?\u00a0 Because the majority of the attendees were middle aged men and women who periodically sat down in their assigned seats\u00a0to give their backs a break from standing.<\/p>\n

Yes, we’ve arrived….we’re old.\u00a0 (In another twenty years we will look back and think how young we were!)\u00a0 As I looked around the pavilion before the concert, I saw a lot a people who looked like me; grey hair, wrinkles, and a little extra weight.<\/p>\n

But then the concert started.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Something incredible happened.\u00a0 As the music started, I was instantly taken back in time.\u00a0 I was once again that 17 year old girl in my boyfriend’s (now husband) yellow Datsun.\u00a0 I was sitting in the passenger seat as he drove on the back roads of the small city where we lived.\u00a0 And like then, we were now singing along like rock stars.<\/p>\n

I looked around and saw that the others had been taken back in time as well.\u00a0 It was fabulous to watch!\u00a0 We were all on our feet, moving our hips, and belting out the lyrics just like we used to. \u00a0My kids would have been embarrassed by all the butt shaking going on by ‘old people’ which made it even more enjoyable. I could see the smiles on peoples faces as they were not only enjoying the music, but remembering what it was like when they first listened to each song.<\/p>\n

That’s the amazing thing about music.\u00a0 It can take you back in time and bring back memories that were almost forgotten.\u00a0\u00a0It can\u00a0elicit emotions long ago packed away.\u00a0 It can cause your body to move in ways you were certain it couldn’t\u00a0anymore.\u00a0\u00a0 And it\u00a0can\u00a0bring\u00a0a joy and fun that responsibilities stifle.<\/p>\n

It was wonderful being\u00a0seventeen again with my husband.<\/p>\n

I think maybe\u00a0it’s time to find\u00a0some of those old CDs…<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A\u00a0couple of weeks ago, my husband and I went to a Van Halen concert.\u00a0 When I met my husband, Van Halen was one of his favorite bands.\u00a0 So when I saw they were coming to our area, I bought tickets … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":275,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/12036443_964036220328924_9091251965033496584_n.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=274"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":276,"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274\/revisions\/276"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}