My, how we've grown

[eldan]

I'm listening to Generation Terrorists, the Manic Street Preachers' debut album, which came out when I was 14 and into Warhammer 40K. I remember that detail because my one and only attempt at painting the miniature soldiers was a bit of a marathon, during which I listened to this album 4 times over, before admitting to myself that I just didn't

Comments

[boobirdsfly]

Yeah.

The only people I know in France after almost 20 years here are my family.

[eldan]

I hope that doesn't happen to me, but I know better than to declare that it just won't, just like when I first moved here I knew better than to ever answer peoples' questions about whether I was moving here for good.

[cynic51]

Tangentially, this post led me to reading about Richey Edwards on wikipedia, which led to the "list of missing persons" which led to several wasted hours. Thank you :-)

[eldan]

Glad to be of "assistance".

[dymaxion]

It's an interesting comparison. I don't much miss most of the people I grew up around, and while there are definitely things I love about the Bay Area, they're not the things I knew when I was growing up there, but rather things I've learned there since leaving. My life feels very much like it's been in transition for a long time now, but in a way I'm very happy with -- it has yet to land and stick on anything specific, but I hope to keep it that way for a while yet, and I definitely have the feeling of being happier with who I am now then I thought would be year after year, in nicely unpredictable ways

[eldan]

I think my life is stabilising in a quite pleasing way now, but what I've realised is that it doesn't make the occasional wistfulness for paths not taken go away. It's become much easier for me to be articulate about what I'm being wistful about, and put it into proper perspective, both of which help a lot.

London's an interesting place for me, I think in similar ways to the Bay Area for you. I hated it when I was 18 and could not wait to get away, and there have only been very short periods since then in which I've actually wanted to live there again, but I love the place now and always enjoy visiting. In some ways the city has changed, but there's been a much bigger change in my appreciation of the things that are good and appealing about a big, cosmopolitan city, and tolerance level for some of the things that are frustrating about big cities.

I have a copy of The Division Bell but don't know it well at all. I should make sure it gets on to my iPod this week, since I have an awful lot of air travel ahead of me.

[dymaxion]

I could see living in San Francisco, but really, it's not the Bay Area that I ever knew -- I have no interest in ever living in the south bay, where I grew up, and even then... I don't know. Still feels a bit close to home, compared to going somewhere new. I think, though, that if you're going to grow up to be an interesting person and you haven't already spent a bunch of time moving around or traveling, you're pretty much required to hate the place you grew up in by the time you're 18.

While I'm not exactly stabilizing, in many ways my life is getting much more defined, which is I guess about the same thing.

This (Pink Floyd) was back in the days of tapes, and it was close to the only album I owned, growing up -- I've never been much for music. On a few high school trips, I ended up just having it on repeat the entire time, pretty much.