Respect, and walk…

I was listening music this morning and one of the songs from my playlist inspired me to write this article. It is a song about respect. It is a powerful song that I like very much so I decided to share it with you. The name of song is ”Walk”, by heavy metal band Pantera from their album ”Vulgar Display of Power”, released in 1992. This song is about dealing with people who are fake and they are pretending to be something they aren’t. Sometimes is actually better to be alone and be your true self than to have a lot of (fake) friends and end up playing to some expected social role. Enjoy the song first, and then I will share with you why I am attached to that song so much.

When journalists asked Phil Anselmo, what inspired him to wrote that lyrics he said: ,, We had basically conquered the Dallas–Fort Worth local scene in Texas. Eventually, Pantera got signed to a major label, and we went out and did some touring. When we came home, our friends started treating us a little differently because they thought it had gone to our heads, like we’ve got this rock-star thing embroidered across our faces. But I felt like I was always the same guy. When I wrote “Walk,” I had just a handful of those people in mind. And basically, my message is, “Take your fucking attitude and take a fuckin’ walk with that. Keep that shit away from me.”

I really like this song. Some people said to me that this song helped them to find their lost self-esteem and to pass through some difficult times. Well, when I heard it for the first time I was 18 years old and I was already a soldier in the army, I did not had any problems with my self-esteem back then, but I fell in love with the song for other reasons.

This song brings to me my childhood memories. As a child I moved a lot from town to town because of my mom’s work. I constantly had to adapt into a new social environments and to find my place in there, but it was not always easy. I was also bullied when I was kid, as most of us did. Unfortunately it is kind of a common occurrence nowadays but it was also back then, especially when you are “the new kid on the block”.

I will share with you in this article one of my stories regarding my adaptation into a new town community. Once upon a time, when I was 13 years old, short after arriving into a new town, I met some girls at the school. We started to hanging out together, and one of them invited me to her birthday party the very next evening. I was so happy about the invitation. I ran home to share the good news with my mom. I told her that I wanted to buy a very nice present for that girl, because she was actually giving me the entrance into their small community by inviting me to that party.

I went together with my mom into the record store and we bought a tape of Modern Talking. This band was so popular at the time, especially their song “You’re My Heart, You’re My Soul”. I knew that most of these girls loved that song and that band. I wrapped the gift in a fancy paper and I joined the party.

The girl was so happy with my present, she unwrapped the tape immediately and she put it into her stereo tape player. We all danced with the rhythm of music and we had a good time. On that party I even smoked my first cigarette in that girl’s bathroom, I was almost quenched by the smoke, what an embarrassment.

The very next morning someone knocked on my door. I was happy to see the party girl with her other 4 friends who also attended that party. My first thought was, wow they love me, so they step by my house the very next morning, because they liked to hang out with me.

I opened the door with a smile, but the expression on their faces proved me wrong. The party girl took out of her pocket an empty Modern Talking tape box. She pointed that box into my face and she said with angry tone of her voice: Fill it up!

I didn’t understand at the moment what she was talking about. I looked at her with bewilderment. She said: Put it back into the box, the tape you’ve stolen from me last night! I was like, what the hell? Why would I steal the tape I bought for you as a present? Are you fucking crazy? She said, I am sure you did it. Someone saw you, I can’t tell you who it was. I told them to go and fuck themselves and I just slam the door into their faces. What else I could do? I was so disappointed.

That girl hurt me so much with that accusation. I was crying my tears out for days after this event. Is there anything so cruel as that, when people are accusing you of doing something that you never did, or you never would. I will never forget this event as long as I live.

After that I never talked to that girl again. Other girls approached me later and they apologized, but she never did. The funny thing is that this very same girl who accused me of stealing, is stalking me on Facebook and she is sending me friend requests all the time, after so many years. Unbelievable. I did not block her yet, but I declined her requests every time. What do you think, why is she doing this? If she just wanted to apologize, after so many years, she could send me a message since I haven’t blocked her yet. Anyway, I would never approve her request. I don’t like this kind of people.

Actually after that event I really got sick of that kind of fake people, so I started to hang out with my metalheads mostly, people that I have something in common. Thanks to my love for heavy metal music, I can simply say that I am not alone and I am never going to be alone wherever I go. Metalheads are one big community, they are everywhere and they always stick together no matter what.

The song ”Walk” also always remind me of my mom. Every time I was on the door to go out of our house my mom used to say to me: ”Respect yourself and others and stay away from troubles!” It was getting into my nerves back then when I was a teenager, but it was actually a very beautiful advice a parent could give to a kid. She managed to stuck this sentence into my mind forever. I love you mom.