Role Models
As a teen and until now there was a band that stood out in my catalog, the one I listened to the most, the one I connected to the best…My Favorite band. Now when I was a teen favorite bands were important, they proved who you were, it was common for someone to ask “What’s your favorite band?” or “Who are you listening to right now?” As if the answer to those questions would let you deeply understand who I was. The band for me was Sunny Day Real Estate, and I do believe that most of you probably have no clue who they are. Well to me they were the world, everything I had ever wanted in music, although the band themselves were deeply unstable, with a few break ups here and there, they were a beacon for me to rely on in the “harsh, dark and cruel world” of high school. Excuse my cynicism but when I think about it now in retrospect, I find it tremendously comical. The lead singer of Sunny Day Real Estate’s name is Jeremy Enigk. He was my role model, he was someone I looked up to without ever meeting him or knowing him deeply. The only thing I knew deeply was his music and his biography which I had read on the internet. Enigk found Jesus somewhere around the realease of the band’s second album in 1995. This caused some drama in the band because Enigk’s vision changed, the band broke up and reunited about 4 times in the next 6 or 7 years, till about 2002 when they said they were done for good. Fortunately for me I was able to see them when I was 17 in 2000, which was the best show I had seen at that time.
This past year in October of 2009, I had the wonderful opportunity of hearing that Sunny Day was back together again for the millionth time. At this point in my life I realized that Sunny Day wasn’t what it used to be for me. I realized that music isn’t what made me who I am, although I did realize this years prior it just hit me hard when I found out Sunny Day was touring again. Their tour did come through Houston, so I went with my brother in-law and a close friend of mine from Jersey to see the show. We got there early thinking the show would be jammed packed with people. There was no one there at all when we got there except Jeremy Enigk by his tour bus smoking a cigarette. I saw him as I was 
parking my car and screamed out loud like a little girl. I parked the car fast and walked fast to the tour bus where he still was by himself smoking a cigarette. I approached him with a smile and said “I just wanted to say hi and let you know i’m excited to see the show.” He looked at me a little surprised that I even knew who he was. He then smiled bashfully and shuck my hand and said “Hello.” I asked him how long he has been in Houston and he responded by saying he was there all day and he went to a karate school and watched people practice karate through a window. We took a picture together and then I walked off. After that experience I realized the man that I considered my role model in my teenage years just talked to me about watching kids do karate. Was he really my role model? Or was I just being cool? I could not figure out why he was a role model besides the fact that he was in my favorite band and he loved Jesus. Not that he isn’t a good guy because he shares his soul in his music and he is incredibly spiritual and talented, I just realized I didn’t know anything about him personally to really asses why he would by my role model. I think this happens more often then we think. Our real role models a lot of times aren’t in our music or movies, but they are in our homes and classrooms. As cliche and corny as that last sentence sounds, I think it is true, because after 26 years of life I realize that my mother is my role model…she is the person I want to use as model of who I want to become. Who is your role model? Is there a famous or not so famous person that you think may be your role model? Why is this person your role model? Btw that is a picture of Jeremy Enigk and I in Houston, he was a lot smaller than I expected.
Sunny Day Real Estate albums to Listen to:
Diary
How it feels to be something on (my favorite)
Jeremy Enigk solo albums to listen to:
Return of the Frog Queen
Ok Bear (my favorite, just released last year)
February 18th, 2010 at 2:38 am
I wonder if many times role models who we don’t know help us keep up a private vision of who we want to be, or who we wish we were. The person they appear to be, and the work they create that we engage connects with us on the inside, and thats powerful stuff. Its good. I know that many times when we meet role models who we don’t know, we realize that who we looked up to was some sort if edited version of the real person that stands in front of us, and that real person may not have as much to do with us as we think. Role models we know, however, usually know us at some level, and have accepted us for who we really are, and have encouraged us to be that person, even when we wish we were someone else. Since that role modeling is in a relational context, its more real, right? Because they are role models to us even when there is a knowledge of the stuff that happens on the outside that isn’t so edited, or “spun.” This is a powerful deal when it comes to knowing how we can be role models, and how we possess the opportunities and ability to do that in a deeper way than people who are “known” by many more folks that we are. Am I rambling here? Thanks Eric- keep letting us into your life, its good stuff! I wrote the word “stuff” 4 times in this paragraph. nice.