Bobbing my head to what I used to have thought was good and intriguing music, I looked outside the clear bus window. My red brick 1980s house loomed into view. The bus stopped, and I stood up, walking through the crowded isle filled with bodies just like mine. I nearly fell down the black steps, and almost landed in the dirt with my face. Brushing myself off from the two-second rush of adrenaline, I turned left and crossed in front of the canary-yellow colored school bus. I crossed the murky-green grass of my front yard. I took a deep breath of air, and instantly, my lungs were filled with a very pungent fungus smell- from the fertilizer, I had assumed. I padded up the four red brick stairs, leading up to my front door. I flung my newly 13-year-old body into the doorway inside. “Sofia! Mom said to go clean your room!” my little sister called. I sighed, and trudged into the stairway, leading to my bedroom. I reached the top of the stairs, and opened my door. God, I hate that pale blue color on my walls. It looks TERRIBLE! I thought, and turned to the drawer that was attached to my bleach-colored wooden bed frame. About time I clean out this drawer! I thought to myself. Opening up the forbidden drawer locked inside the prison of my room, I peered into the crowded shelf that held my old and forgotten materials. Sifting through the junk, something shiny caught my eye. I reached for it and pulled it out, examining it’s glimmering circular shape. I flipped over, and saw 3 distinct icons: a red plane, a yellow pair of pants, and a green jacket. It was a CD. I couldn’t quite place where I had seen this from before; then a vague memory of seeing it being shoved into the car stereo trickled into the back of my mind. Eager to see what artist it was by, I ran down the stairs and slipped it into the computer. An artist name popped up: blink-182. I gasped. The name triggered musical memories… the CD was called “Take Off Your Pants and Jacket”. “Could it be?!” I shouted, accidentally aloud. I downloaded it to the computer then to my iPod. Scrambling for my headphones, I finally felt the rubbery cord and yanked it out. Plugging it into my iPod, I hit play. The music flowed through my ears to my brain, and I stopped breathing for 30 seconds. I flipped through the songs, and each of them triggered memories. I listened to the lyrics, and it felt as if my heart stopped beating. They were so realistic, so true, so relatable… but each song conveyed a message. Each song told me how to get over a break-up, or how not to let anyone affect my personality, and to just be myself. Not be afraid of who I was, and just be honest. Blink-182 changed my attitude, and they also helped me through friend dramas, which I cannot imagine would have been like without their music guiding me on. Honestly, they made me a better person. I didn’t have as much of a temper, and all in all, I was so much happier. Most people would say, “They’re just a band”, but no. They’re not. To hundreds of thousands of people around the world and I, they are more than just a band. Both their music and the band themselves are our best friends- encouraging us to do our best, inspiring us to be true to ourselves, and teaching us that it’s better to try hard and fail rather than never try at all. If I could say anything to them, it would be, “Thank you, blink-182. You changed my life and made it a better place.”, because, really, they did. I listen to much better music now, thanks to them. I’ve also made a ton of friends because they like them as much as I do. The world is now a much happier place, and I will never be able to thank them enough.