Way back in 2004, I got the album Adam Up by the Christian parody band ApologetiX. I played some of the songs on it hundreds of times--no exaggeration--and it was my favorite for quite a while. One of my favorites on there was a spoof of Eminem's "Lose Yourself," titled "Look Yourself." J. Jackson, the lead singer and parody lyric writer stated that, when he became a Christian, his friends and family didn't think much of it; they just thought it was another fad, and he'd be out of it as quick as he got into it. Obviously, that wasn't the case, since he became a Christian in 1988 and is still performing in a CCM band to this day. J. referred to it in "Look Yourself" with this lyric: "That's what'll happen, then, though: he'll go fanatic-y! Better go batten the hatches and hope it don't last!"
I've previously used that lyric as sort of a personal statement. Sometimes, I wonder if that's exactly what people were thinking when I mentioned some new fascination, like when I walked into my homeroom junior year and announced, "Guess what, everyone? I've got a new celebrity crush!" and proceeded to tell them it was Anne Hathaway...or when I recently announced to my friends both on and off Facebook that Anne was no longer my number one celebrity crush, and had been replaced by Nickelodeon star Victoria Justice. You may think that my life is nothing but a series of fads, and you'd be right...but only partly.
Why do I say "partly"? For all the short-lived crazes I've been into (Pokémon, Beanie Babies, Diff'rent Strokes, The Magic School Bus, Power Rangers...and the list goes on) there have also been some passions I've had for as far back as I can remember. One of them is computers. Ever since I started fiddling around with that old Commodore 64 at the age of two, I've always liked doing all kinds of stuff on them: playing games, making and printing stuff using desktop publishing software, typing out my feelings (like I'm doing right now,) researching things on the Internet, and so on. Parodies are also a long-time passion. Even before I really liked popular music all that well, I liked making and singing parodies. I taught my friends parodies of "Prince Ali" and "Deck the Halls" that I'd heard from other kids, and who can forget the anti-school spoofs, with lyrics such as "Let's blow up stupid [name of school]! Hip, hooray!" or "[Name of school]! Dumb [name of school]! We dis you with our song! No part of us should ever be here, especially when we're gone!" (The latter made my best friend in sixth grade laugh out loud.) It continued from then into now; I still create and love them.
Even some things that I have been into can't really be considered fads. Wiktionary defines a fad as "a phenomenon that becomes popular for a very short time." You may think that Anne Hathaway falls into that category for me, but I'll tell you why she doesn't: I first got into her in March 2005, and I still somewhat like her. (I didn't say I was completely giving her up; I said she was no longer my number one celebrity crush or favorite actress.) Do any of you honestly consider five years and ten months to be a short time? Even video games weren't a fad with me. Although I got out of them in 2007, I first got into them around 1999, so that equates to eight years. Again, do you consider that a short time?
Besides which, many of us--by that, I mean everyone, not just autistics--have gone through fads at some point in our lives. Remember how kids all over America were all fanatical about Pokémon back in 1999? (I should know; I was one of them.) How many of them have even touched one of those games in the past year? A small percentage, I'd be willing to bet. Beanie Babies were the same way; people were collecting them in droves and selling them for super-high prices, but, over the past few years, I've seen them countless times at yard sales, often for only a buck or two each, when their starting price in the 90's was over twice that. For many people of my generation, those things and others (such as Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers) are nothing but embarrassing memories.
I will close by saying this: My tastes in everything have changed over the years. If you look at the spectrum of music on my iPod, it's a lot broader than my tastes in music were a decade ago. I also used to detest "tween" shows, but I now have the star of one as my desktop background, and she's not even the first one to be on there. I'm sure everyone could say that, though; many things they used to hate or laugh at, they ended up quite liking. Who knows who will replace Victoria, or if she will even be replaced? For now, though, I will wear my "Team TORi" shirt with pride.
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