Leaving Jesusland while Reclaiming Your Ipod

Another song that is on my ipod is NoFX’s Leaving Jesusland. This song is from my friend Jesse. He was my crush freshman year of college. This song is loud, angry and punk. This song is very unlike the rest of the songs on my iPod.



So who is Jesse? Just like the song, he pushed the limits of what I thought proper young gentlemen that I wanted to date are like. When I started school freshman year I was young, naïve, and bursting to get out and meet some gay people. Coming from my background of a conservative town where the closest thing to gay was hearing Elton John on the radio or watching Will and Grace on TV. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect since I didn’t even have Queer as Folk. So off I went bounding for our campus’s gay group the first week of class. That’s where I met Jesse, a TA who was new to UIC already making out with a short guy from the group. Jesse had at one point several piercings that were not on his ears. He listened to punk rock (obviously) was very anti-established religion and anti-straight and anti-everything and yet was everything I wanted to be with. He never went that long without a boyfriend. After short Asian there was a stint with crazy boyfriend with a Mohawk (they moved in together after a few weeks…) and then they broke up. He moved out and got a place of his own and was flirting with
a few separate groups of people while being single for two months.

It was in that two month period that I fell for him, hard. I gathered my courage and I made a move. The initial move was to invite him to a party. We stopped at my parents’ place where he met them and thoroughly upset and shocked my mother. Then I asked him out, was promptly shot down, and fell into an emo state filled with Imogen Heap (which Jesse also introduced me
to.)

Why do I keep this song: As a personal rebellion to my not quite so supportive parents. While I would never play this while they’re around, whenever I have a rather bad phone call or conversation with them I just play it to “give em the finger”. Another reason is to just remember to push the limits sometimes in my life. I am a very reserved person for those who know me. Every once in a while one has to get outside of one’s comfort zone. How else would I get outside this messed up Bible Belt?