"Everybody's Screwed Up In Their Own Special Way!

     I'll probably spend some other blogs delving into my favorite genres of music. For those of you who know me well know that I am a fan of Punk Rock music. I have my cousin Greg to thank for that. I think that a lot of the time, Punk Rock is misunderstood. It's easy to think that because a lot of Punk bands don't play their instruments as well as more professional bands do. Their songs can sound angry, or sing so bad you don't understand their lyrics, and I think that's really unfortunate because a lot of the best lyrics in music can come from Punk music. 

     Everyone has probably heard of The Ramones, whether they are into Punk Rock or not. The Ramones accomplished so much with only playing short songs with four easy chord progressions, but they were quite brilliant. I wanted to share with you a quote that Joey Ramone, (May he rest in peace), that I love. I will be sharing a few quotes of his on this blog in the future because they are so dang good.

     "Everybody's screwed up in their own special way!" 

     I absolutely love this quote. It's so simple, yet profound. I don't care who you are or what you do, or whom you associate with, everyone from all walks of life, all have something about themselves that's screwed up in a way.

     For me, I learned about seven years ago that I have Asperger's Syndrome. When I found out that I do, I wouldn't really talk about it with anyone at all. I felt like I might be broken in a way. I've looked back at my life a lot, and there have been things I've done or said that have me feeling embarrassed or ashamed. I have judged myself fairly harsh for dumb mistakes or things I said. However, learning more about myself with Asperger's Syndrome, I'm lucky that it's a very mild case. I know wonderful people who have Asperger's as well, and some are severe, and I count myself lucky.

     Things that seemed like curses in my life, have turned out to be strengths. One of my issues is I get fixated on something, and I get obsessed with that one thing for a while. As an example, when I was in sixth grade, I discovered my parents had Beatles records, and I played one of them, and all of a sudden I was a Beatlemaniac for a good four years. I ate, slept and breathed The Beatles. I still love them.  Another thing, I am obsessed with film. I love movies so much, but I was able to take that obsession, a potentially bad thing, and turn it into something I get paid to do. I started reading other critics reviews when I was eight, and always thought that that would be the best job in the world, and now I do it.

     My point is, yeah, my brain functions and actions might be something that's screwed up sometimes, but it's also opened doors for me. It's lead to self discovery. It's led me to be able to forgive myself and accept that I'm human, and all humans do dumb things sometimes. We are all screwed up in our own special way. I challenge you to look inside yourself and find out how screwed up you are, and look past those things, forgive yourself and try to make each day better and better, and if you mess up, remember, it's okay. We're all screwed up, so make it special!