What kind of parent am I???

I'll never forget it. It was August of 2006, right around my birthday. Driving down to the Jersey shore. My daughter was only 2 and half months old. We pulled off into a McDonald's to change her diaper. I have her on the drivers side seat and who but Eminem comes on the mix CD playing. Not the nicest song, but it had a good beat. Lyrics? Hell, I wouldn't play the song in front of her now, but back then it didn't matter. So I am changing her diaper and Marshall is rapping about chicks and hos and all kinds of unmentionable things. What does Avery do?? She starts cracking up. Yes, my daughter laughed for the first time to f-bombs and sexually explicit lyrics. What does this all have to do with today? Well, I am choosing to use Eminem's probable masterpiece of a song, "Lose Yourself." Let me make a quick tangent here, 8 Mile, the road, not the movie. I know it well. I grew up right off what should have been named 3 Mile Road, instead it was Joy Road. I played golf on 8 Mile Road far, far down from the slums of the movie. But the movie itself, was surprisingly good. I mean Eminem did a respectable job acting. Maybe it was just Curtis Hanson's direction, but the movie is worth seeing and should definitely not be dismissed. But now to the song:

"Snap back to reality,
Oh there goes gravity
Oh, there goes Rabbit, he choked
He's so mad, but he won't give up that Easy, no
He won't have it , he knows his whole back's to these ropes
It don't matter, he's dope
He knows that, but he's broke
He's so stagnant that he knows
When he goes back to his mobile home,
that's when it's Back to the lab again yo
This this whole rhapsody
He better go capture this moment and hope it don't pass him

You better lose yourself in the music,
the moment You own it, you better never let it go
You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blow
This opportunity comes once in a lifetime yo "

This song is really an inspirational song that speaks to me. It's all about taking control of your life and seizing the day. Not to go all "Dead Poet's Society" on you, but that is what I really need to change in my life. Hopefully I have started taking those steps with entering this screenwriting contest next month and entering the 48 Hour Film Project as well. In the past, I was too afraid to go after the things I wanted, I just let them pass, figured I wasn't good enough or worthy of these things. It is ok to fail at things, but you have to keep trying. Here's to trying to reach your dreams, again and again, until you make it happen.