Am I a loser?

A little background to this question / story, which I'll probably do a lot of. I'm something of a rambler, as my wife would tell you.

I check out this website www.noisetrade.com just about every day. It's a nice site developed, in part, by Derek Webb. You can pay any price you want for the music on there, or "tell 3 friends" about it and get the music for free.

So, I was checking out the site to see what new music is on there (there's at least one new band / album just about every day), and I saw an EP by a group called JackoPierce. Immediately I was thrown into a nostalgic trip.

You see, JackoPierce would likely have no meaning whatsoever to me, had they not been a group that an old high school friend of mine listened to. But, I can still remember Roger's JP t-shirt. Roger turned me on to some VERY cool music, by the way. Thanks for that, should you ever read this Roger.

But, back to the nostalgic trip. I began thinking about high school. Everything about it. The friends, the good times, etc. I LOVED high school. Seriously. I really, really had a great time in high school.

I grew up in a small upstate NY town and went to school with essentially the same 80 or 90 kids in my class every year K-12. And, I was in the same First Baptist church 90-95% of every Sunday of my life, until I joined the Army and moved away. Those things combined gave me some truly awesome, life long friends. I really miss that town and those people when I think about them.

Now, I live in OK. I have an amazing life here. I have an incredibly awesome wife and a family of my own. I have made some really great friends here, and in the Army. I wouldn't trade what I have now for the world. Really, I wouldn't. So, in no way does my missing old friends and family back home belittle how much I love the people currently in my life. I'm just saying.

And that's the thing. "I'm just saying."

Sometimes I wonder if I am a. the only one (or, at least, one of a small few) who feels so fondly of "home" or b. just a weirdo loser.

Am I that guy? Am I the guy who still tells, and laughs at, old high school inside jokes when I do get together with my old friends? Yes I am.

Hopefully, this doesn't make me TOO much of a loser, if I am indeed a loser. And if, so... I guess I'll just have to live with it.

I just wonder about that sometimes. It seems like high schoolers always want to get away. I know this to be true. It was true of SO many of my class mates. It's pretty much a known thing. When you're in high school, you can't wait until graduation so you can get the _ _ _ _ _ _ out of "this place." But, I was really never like that. And you really never hear a lot about people who do want to go back home. There is that saying about how you can "never go back home", or something along those lines. That would indicate that I'm not completely alone here, but it just seems to me that more people want to get out (which would seem to be for a reason) than want to come back.

See. I'm rambling. I have no idea where to take this from here.

Oh well. Just thought I'd share.

bye bye.