Fidelity - Nokiaa, Deauxnuts

Fri, 06/12/24

15:34

Picture this:

As we come out the door, he says to me, “I’m looking for Bruce… he’s got something for me.” Of course, I had no problem I’m coming out of Life Science class with my best friend. It’s break time, and we are headed to our usual spot to hang out with the rest of our friends.

Accompanying him to go get whatever he needed to get from Bruce, but it didn’t seem like he knew where to find Bruce. And I’m standing there wondering how long this is going to take - my lunchbox isn’t going to empty itself.

And just there by the stairs, the Bruce fellow pops up (I had never actually seen the guy before). A quick nod and a fist bump does for the greeting, and then Bruce pulls out a disc from his bag and gives it to my buddy.

Yes, I was around to witness the CDR era. It turns out my buddy had asked Bruce to burn some music for him… there’s that term, “burning” music to a disc. It still feels weird to say.

At that point, I’m happy cause I’m moments away from emptying my lunchbox. And just before going on… my buddy says, “ … Now I just need to figure out how to get these songs onto my MP3 player”.

Ok… I cannot keep explaining what these technologically advanced gadgets are. An MP3 player is a tiny little rectangle that’s about the size of your gate remote. This device was incredible… it had a massive storage capacity of about 1 GB. You could load your favourite songs onto it and listen on the go. Now back to the story…

I turn to my buddy… and with a very casual tone, I say to him, “I can do that for you, I don’t mind”. He’s like, “Oh, cool… here. You’ll bring this back tomorrow”. He hands me both his MP3 player and the CDR, I take a short glance at my beautiful lunchbox as  I pop them into my bag.

We went about the rest of the day… Later, when I got home, I immediately got on my mom’s laptop.

Now… there are a few ways this could’ve played out. What I had promised to do for my buddy could have gotten me an ass-whooping. 

1. You don’t bring other people’s stuff into the house. EVEN IF THEY SAID IT’S OK. Being borrowed something doesn’t mean you can go home with it. That’s an ass-whooping right there.

2. I was not allowed to use my mom’s devices. Her phone and her laptop (especially her laptop) were OFF LIMITS. That’s two ass-whoopings in one offense.

3. 
   

Had she found out, I might not have had the chance to live long enough to write this…

Ok, jokes aside… The point of this is that she didn’t find out. And I got to plug in my friend’s MP3 player and transfer the songs from the disc.

That night, I stood outside behind the house, making sure to hide where there were no widows, and I switched it on. Beyond wanting to do my buddy a favour, I was curious. I wanted to hear what was on the disc.

That moment right there… that changed my life.

No, it SAVED MY LIFE.

What astonishes me is the fact that the things that have been dear to me all my life were neither acceptable nor allowed. There are a few more stories similar to this one, where I didn’t listen to what I was supposed to do or be. I did what I felt my heart was telling me to do in those moments.

My reward for this courage and boldness is a blissful life. Today I get to wake up each day and celebrate the little things that make the moment that much sweeter.

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It was not allowed

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