“She said I don’t know if I’ve ever been good enough
I’m a little bit rusty
And I think my head is caving in
And I don’t know if I’ve ever been really loved
By a hand that’s touched me
Well, I feel like something’s gonna give
And I’m a little bit angry…”
-Matchbox 20
For awhile during the summer of 1997, the song “Push” by Matchbox 20 was my anthem. The lyrics I quoted above resonated with me on a deep level. I had moved on from some of the stuff that I’d been through, but somehow, I had been kind of drifting from one bad relationship to another, and even though I had developed feelings on some level for the guys I had been involved with, I never truly felt that it was reciprocated in the way that the ideological girl that I was then wanted it to be, dreamed it would be.
Because I tend to overthink things, in my head, I broke down the many levels of the whole sex thing. You can feel free to disagree with me if you want, but in my thinking, it was a little something like this – there was making love, having sex, getting fucked, or being forced. And though I had some experience with the latter three, it was later in my life that I ever got to experience the first.
And this morning it’s on my mind – how I still believe there’s a difference, even after all these years. That my musings as a twenty-year-old aren’t too far off from my thirty-one year old thoughts.

3 comments
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July 14, 2008 at 9:32 pm
Contessa Confessa
Yeah, you really do learn the truth at seventeen… (err, 21).
On somewhat of the same note, who knew something so beautiful as LOVE could– at times– feel so sad and empty (??).
July 18, 2008 at 8:35 pm
Melanie
This is truly one set of lyrics that touched something in me the first time I heard them – and the second verse too (I don’t know why you couldn’t just stay with me/Couldn’t stand to be near me/When my face don’t seem to want to shine/Cause it’s a little bit dirty).
And yes, as far as I’ve come, I still believe a lot of things I believe in at 20. But ask me again at 40.
July 18, 2008 at 8:49 pm
Lyrically Me
Yeah, the whole song…
It was my anthem that summer. Sigh.