My Entire Life Was Upended By A Music Video In High School

Or, how my obsession with hula hooping saved my life.

Photo by Joel Muniz on Unsplash

Imagine the following scenario: you are a goth teenager in a gifted and talented, invite-only high school. You have untreated hormone issues that cause violent mood swings not unlike bipolar disorder.

You have an eating disorder and are Captain of the C Team for one of two school sports teams: the Varsity Academic Team. You’re a loner and a freak, and such is life.

Congrats! You now know what it was like for me in high school. I was the one who was terminally online. Not even other people from my high school liked me, so I often spent LARPing (live action role play) or watching music videos after school.

For a typical goth, this meant a lot of time on antiMTV.com, a now-defunct site filled with goth music videos. I also spent time on MTV.com, and that’s where I saw it.

A lot of people have a moment when they hear music or see a music video that changes them.