Oh, Sweet Summer

So it turns out that most techno songs are no longer free for me to listen to. Techno is eternally bound to the summer I turned 16.

There I was, just sitting there, philosophizing and the radio pulsing with music, when a techno song came on. And all at once, as if I were a child standing underneath a mushroom at a water park, it hit me.

I had bought two techno CDs that spring, and they really were the soundtrack of my summer. I listened to them, and nothing else. Dance remixes, DJ remixes, whatever what was on those CDs. I adored them. I couldn't get enough.
And so it really shouldn't come as a surprise, then, that I've created a mental link from that genre to that summer.
It was the summer I got my first love letter.
It was the summer I fancied myself in love.
It was the summer I learned I could write.
It was the summer I learned how to take a picture.
It was the summer I was independent.
It was the summer I felt like I belonged somewhere.
It's not a bad memory, that summer. Nostalgic and semi-bittersweet when I think of the goodbyes and the hellos that vanished as time washed over the months.

Here is to the summer.

And I'm taking back my toast to the radio. Because it made me realize that techno is dead to me, as all summers must die.