What a Difference a Year Makes

Before my eighth grade year,
I was a bland ungraceful geek
No fashion sense, I acted
Like a shameless freak

Before mascara had found my eyes
And black had settled in
Long ago when ugly was forever
For the win

That year of living hell,
Of bankruptcy signs
Of black presidents
And failing air lines

It changed my life forever
Now I’ll never be the same
For eight grade was the year I
Lost the game

Happy and go-lucky,
I had just discovered jeans
I still had no idea of
What good-looking means

I can’t go back there,
But I wouldn’t want to
Back then, when I thought
Santa Claus was true

I set off into the wild unknown
Clarinet in hand
I arrived slightly emo
In a strange and foreign land

I haven’t really changed,
I’m still that six-two freak
But I’ve found something important;
I belong with band geeks.