“Drift Away” by Uncle Kracker
One of my favorite new additions to the Gen Z vocabulary is “main character moments.” It’s all about the moments where you felt like the main character in a movie — whether it was driving with the windows down on a perfect day, a solo dance party (it’s just *such* a 2000’s teen movie), or feeling all eyes on you at your local coffee shop.
One of my funnier ones (looking back) was the summer going into my junior year of high school.
Eliza was one of my closest friends in high school, and we had played volleyball since the 7th grade. Yes, we would be seen side by side at practice sporting our spandex and oversized t-shirts, trying to look cool as the boys came back in from football practice. I’m sure our zebra print socks were a hot topic.
Well, we spent the summer prepping for Varsity tryouts when we were 16. Workouts were three times a week, and practice would follow immediately after for another hour. I was exhausted but very excited for the upcoming season, ready to finally get past JV rank (and have the better uniforms of course).
The last day of tryouts came around and Coach Sue assigned me #21 for the roster sheet. (I still respect her decision to provide everyone a little anonymity.) So, the day ends, and she tells everyone to check the posted sheet of paper on our way out. Like out of a movie, everyone rushed to see whether their number made the 11 spots. I finally snuck my way past everyone and scanned …. And scanned again …. And one more time for good measure.
Spoiler: #21 wasn’t up there
Trying to remain as composed as possible, I blankly stared out the door and walked out. Not only was I devastated, but I was also extremely embarrassed. I got cut from a team. I immediately placed myself in the “not athletic” category and felt sick to my stomach.
As my feet finally slid to the parking lot, Eliza was standing by her car, excuse truck (we’ll get back to that), puffy-eyed and sputtering. I dropped my bag, and we both just cried.
Fast forward a few hours to later that night … it was summer after all, and more than anything Eliza and I wanted to just go have fun with our friends.
You know those moments where you almost feel like you’re on a warpath, time blurring around you as you rush to get ready and just go somewhere. We had our destination and were more than done with this terrible day. So, Eliza comes to pick me up in her (quite funny looking) truck that her Dad had passed down to her, and we set out for our friend Thomas’s “hunt club” to hang out with our friends.
Well, after a good 20 minutes on the dirt roads of Hopkins, South Carolina, we called it quits. None of the location pins my friends sent us were getting us anywhere, and the day turned worse.
In main character fashion, we turned the car around, rolled the windows down, and turned the radio volume as loud as it could go. I remember it vividly, we were driving down the main stretch near my high school (Garners Ferry) when “Drift Away” by Uncle Kracker came on. (I know so many people are trying to suppress a chuckle right now). Well, we screamed it at the top of our lungs, through our limbs out the window, and there might have been some air keyboarding in there too on my part.
It was exhilarating.
So every time “day after day I’m more confused” gently echoes over the speakers at my house, at a restaurant, or who knows where I laugh a little at Eliza and I’s main character moment. I really hope no one had seen or heard my singing that night.
