The Fire

Sometimes I can't believe I've been living in the U.S. for 7 years. Part of me thinks I've been here my whole life and part of me can so vividly remember the first few months here that I can't believe it was that long ago.

My brother listened to a lot of Eminem at that point and, simply because we spent a lot of time together, so did I. (I was listening to Britney too and somehow Eminem and Britney just complemented each other in my brain.) I remember really identifying with Eminem's lyrics and being inspired by them. Everything was new and kind of scary. Plenty of embarrassing experiences came out of my first year in the US, and the way I think I dealt with those was through Eminem's songs.

Lose Yourself, Sing for the Moment, Love Me after failures, when I needed to get back up and keep working. Without Me, Just Don't Give a Fuck, When the Music Stops when I accomplished something I was striving for. (Add the Beg for Mercy G-Unit album to the I-feel-pimpin' playlist. "If you don't know who I be you better AKS someboooooody about me..." Ha!)

I guess I couldn't really relate to Eminem's songs in the past few years but this past summer I reconnected to them again with the Recovery album. My goals have changed so much from what they were 7 years ago, but what makes me stop wallowing in self-pity and get back to work hasn't. The Marshall Mathers LP, The Slim Shady LP and The Eminem Show are awesome albums and definitely take me back to the old days, just like I think Recovery will always take me back to Summer 2010 when I was getting the fire back in me.

This 60 Minutes story brought a tear to my eye. I wish I could shake this guy's hand.