It takes a village – and my brother

Only seven more days until Bruce Springsteen’s new album comes out.  It takes a village to contain my excitement when he comes out with a new one.  Yes, I’m 29 years old and I love Bruce Springsteen.  He is my favorite singer ever.  I cried when Clarence Clemmons passed away.  My closest friends think my appreciation for Springsteen borderlines on crazy.  Just because I know all the words to almost all of his songs doesn’t make me crazy…just excited. 

My older brother loves the Boss too so I think that’s part of how it started.  I started listening to the Boss when I was probably in middle school when I heard him blasting through the house on the old school stereo system with the three disc changer my brother had in his basement bedroom.  When my brother and I were both in high school, he would drive us home from track practice and either play AC/DC or Bruce.  In my surly teenage state, I thought I was too cool for school and barely spoke to my brother on those drives.  I can say that those drives were one of my favorite parts of the day though…  I regret that now - the not talking enough.  Anyways – while I’m still a huge fan of both AC/DC and Bruce, Bruce moreso defined my high school career.  Sidenote:  the only reason I started running track in high school was because my brother did…I wanted us to have something in common – I never expected that I would love it.  

I have him to thank for my addiction to running.  

My freshman year of college, my brother took me to my first Springsteen concert at the Bradley Center.  I had the best time.  We didn’t have the best seats (hello, two college students) but I loved it.  He took me to another Springsteen concert for my birthday a couple years later but that first one still rings in my mind as the best concert I’ve ever been to.  Nowadays, I count the days until the newest CD comes out, I hang up Rolling Stone covers with Springsteen on them like I’m a kid collecting posters, and every time the Boss is in the area, I’m there.

I would never admit this to my brother, but after he graduated high school, and I inherited the station wagon that he used to drive us around in, after track practice, I would still blast Springsteen on my way home.  With the windows up of course.