You Still Rock!

I believe loud music and close friends can help keep a busy mom and wife sane and thankful….

I may not be organized or athletic or the best possible volunteer for the PTO, but I still have something I thought was lost somewhere between college graduation and the birth of my first child…. my ability to rock out! This hit me last week when I went to my first Def Leppard concert.

It had been ages since I’d gone to a concert that didn’t feature an oversized yellow bird, so I had no idea what to wear. My older brother and sister-in-law were lucky enough to be the judges as I narrowed my selections. Hopes of being one of the coolest looking spectators was dashed soon after I tried on my last ensemble and my brother said, “Are you trying to look like you have no idea who Def Leppard is?” I decided on an outfit that didn’t scream, “I’m a mom and this concert is wayyy past my bedtime” but was conservative enough that I didn’t look like someone auditioning for the third season of Rock of Love.

My friends and I met at a central location and everyone piled in. The excitement was palpable. It had been awhile since any of us had been out without a container of baby wipes or snack bag in tow. I actually started to feel younger until one of the girls wanted to listen to some music and the only CD I had was KIDZ BOP VOLUMN 10.

Concerts have changed since college. We didn’t worry about “fitting in.” Safety wasn’t a high priority either. If there were 6 people riding in a car with 5 seatbelts you didn’t take an extra car… you’d take an extra passenger. The conversations that go on before the show are similar though. But instead of asking questions like, “Does my hair look big enough?” it was, “Does this minivan make me look fat?”

I wasn’t familiar with all of Def Leppard’s music before the show. It had been years since I really listened to “Hysteria” or “Love Bites” but when the band started my girlfriends and I were magically taken back to our teenage years where you’re more concerned about makeup than mortgage payments and your world revolves around you and not school fundraisers. For a few hours on a hot August night we were just three girls laughing, talking and listening to music. We were 16 again and one friend who has a teenager finally “got it” and decided she has more in common with her teenage daughter than hair color.

The show ended and as the convoy of Mini Vans and SUV’s -filled with 30, 40 and 50 something’s- left downtown Nashville, I realized that it doesn’t matter how old you are, how many children you have or how many pounds you’ve gained since high school, if you can still remember the words to the music you grew up with….YOU STILL ROCK!