I am about to graduate from college and it is time for me to take a little time machine trip backwards.  Four years ago at this time I was about to graduate from high school and had no idea what the next four years held for me.  I remember thinking how hard college was going to be when I got there and that I hoped I could do well.  Little did I know that I would actually graduate with a higher G.P.A. in college than I had in high school.  It seems like forever ago that I was in high school.  They say that time flies, but it doesn't seem like it when you're going from 18 and in high school to 22 and graduating college.  Four years ago I had Dana, Tim, Robert, Beth, Chad, Angel, Mindy, Jenny, Stephen, David and Chris as good friends that I just assumed would all stay in touch forever.  Now, only Dana, Tim, Robert, and Beth remain and three of them are in Dana's family, so aside from her family and my family I have Tim left.  Now granted if you add up the things that Chad, Angel, Mindy, Jenny, Stephen, David and Chris did for me while we were friends it doesn't even come close to everything that Dana and Tim have meant to me, and that's probably why he's the only one that remains in my life.  This article is going to be a bit of nostalgia about four years ago.  Some of it will be funny, some of it will be amazing, some of it will make you think, but all of it just makes you realize how much the times have changed.

Four years ago . . .

Mom had just finished beauty school and had not yet accumulated the small fortune we now know as Dollar General money.

Dad hadn't had to deal with SGS yet or Capeside assholes and in fact had probably never even heard of SGS.

Neither Dana nor I had ever been drunk, had never stayed in a hotel together, and had never listened to mom sing, "I'm a soul man," in the hotel room.

Speaking of drinking, I had never seen Mary have a drink, mom have more than a wine cooler, or dad drink a Harvey Wallbanger.

Also in drinking, Beth had never told a cop that she didn't f**kin' do nothin', I'd never seen Angela even hold a drink much less try one, and we definitely never had to hide the peach schnapps from Timmy.

The Camps had no dogs.

Evander Holyfield still had his entire right ear.

Who are the Arizona Diamondbacks, Tampa Bay Devil Rays and how the hell could the Cleveland Browns be an expansion team, they're already in the league and why on earth would the Houston Oilers want to move to Tennessee.

Tony Gwynn was the best hitter in baseball . . . some things never change.

Beth was about to finish her Freshman year and probably liked Matt Diesel which was before she temporarily liked Travis, which was before she liked Pete, which was before she like Matt again, which was before she finally settled on Jeremy.

Robert was still dating Ambre and still had his hair.

Neil had only been gone a few months.

Nobody ever dreamed that Mary could have a heart attack.

Angela was about to finish 7th grade and was playing her first year for the Roadrunners, and if I'm not mistaken, Beth was playing her last year for the Roadrunners.

Timmy was about to finish 4th grade and had never even come close to hitting a home run, much less brag about it.

Seinfeld, Mad About You, Home Improvement, Roseanne, and Married . . . with Children were still all on the air.

Titanic was a really big boat that sank a long time ago and that's it.

Princess Diana, Mother Theresa, and Jimmy Stewart were still alive, and so were a couple of Yankees that went by the names of DiMaggio and Mantle.

Dana's hair was brown . . . all of it.

Beth had just started offering out of the kindness of her heart to drive my car for me and she hadn't yet hit .141 her Junior year of softball.

Dana was very very beautiful . . . some things never change.

Angela and Timmy were both shorter than me, by a lot.

Mom was driving a Honda, but it certainly wasn't a Green Civic, it was a pinkish, greyish Accord, which was before she had the tan Nissan Altima, which was before she bought her current Civic.

Speaking of cars, I was driving a certain '88 Blue Honda Civic, dad had some old gray truck that he was soon to get rid of (yeah right), Scott had a white Ford Ranger, the Camps had no truck, and the van was still running.

Mom and dad were married . . . thankfully that will never change.

Scott was working midnight shift at Wal-Mart and living on Garden Street.

Our families had never eaten Thanksgiving dinner together or had a 4th of July together or spent New Year's Eve together, or gone bowling together, or even played wiffleball together.

No one had ever seen Budweiser Frogs or Gap commercials or Taco Bell chihuahuas or even Sportscenter commercials.

We'd never heard of Timothy McVeigh or Ted Kaczinsky.

"Show me the money" was only something you'd have been terrified to hear in a dark alley.

Stephanie and Jason weren't married yet.

Tim lived in Titusville, worked at St. Theresa, was dating Elizabeth and had never thought of moving to Colorado.

Scott was still dating Erin, had never dated Trissy or Stephanie, and had never had his heart broken.

Helen Rogers and Jamey Crosby were still with us and they had their whole lives ahead of them.

Jon was single and rich and he's going to eventually marry Melissa Peacock, yeah right.

We had just moved from Lantern Park to the townhouse in Tituswoods and I never thought we'd be moving into another house . . . in Titusville that is.

Jeremy was just Chad's friend that I'd met a couple of times.

I was playing big league with Shaun Clements, along with playing Stan Musial baseball with Robert, Chad, and David with dad coaching.

I had never had my own apartment, checking account, credit cards, bills, or even responsibilities.

I had this really old glove that I got when I was 11 but refused to part with even when mom and dad bought me a new glove, boy am I glad those days are over. . . wait a minute, some things never change.

Nobody knew who the Backstreet Boys or 'N Sync or Britney Spears were.

Regis Philbin is going to host a game show on ABC that'll be #1 in the ratings--yeah right.

I had never even thought about growing a goatee.

Where the hell is Lagrange, Georgia?

I had never been to Las Vegas or Jon's house or Arcadia, FL or Cancun, Mexico.

I had never been to Grandma Carraway's house without mom and dad, much less three times.

I had never been to see a Braves game at Turner Field much less seen three with Scott, Jason, and Stephanie, and two with Chuck.

The Yankees hadn't won a World Series since 1977 and hadn't been in one since 1981.

The AFC hadn't won a Super Bowl since 1982.

I had never been to Lagrange, Savannah, Americus, Thomasville, Auburn, or Pensacola to see Dana play.

I certainly hadn't been to Lagrange 23 times.

I did not yet hate I-10, but it wouldn't take long.

I had never thrown the football that you can really wing.

I was voted the cutest, funniest, genius of the Senior class . . . some things never change.

I never could have dreamed that one day I'd be able to put together a web page like this.

I had never seen Jimmy Buffett, or Tim McGraw, or Faith Hill, or George Strait, or Charlie Daniels, or Travis Tritt, or Hank Williams Jr. in concert and the Garth concert I'd seen was a distant memory.

I had never had a long island iced tea, or a harvey wallbanger, and what the hell is an electric watermelon.  An iguana, sure dad'll try that.

The champions of college football as much as I hate to type it were the Florida Gators and three months earlier we watched them kick the shit out of Florida State in the Sugar Bowl, all of us.

The champions of baseball just happened to be the Atlanta Braves in the only year that they didn't actually choke in the post season.

I had never been in a Wal-Mart for 8 hours Christmas shopping and in fact had no desire to and in fact never would like to again.

I had never seen dad go Christmas shopping for everyone, especially not to the flea market.

Tiger Woods was a pretty good amateur golfer.

Barry Sanders, Michael Jordan, and Wayne Gretzky were still playing--very well.

My car had never been broken into and I had never owned a pair of sunglasses.

I was really, really, rich . . . until after Cancun and that whole Red Honda Prelude purchase.

I had never been to Disney with the Camp family.

I had never tasted the paradise known as a Guthrie's chicken finger.

I had never heard the words, "Everybody hates me" come out of Dana's mouth.

Mom and dad had no internet to look everything up on, oh how some things have gotten easier.

My car still had a spoiler on the back of it and no scratches down the side which probably had something to do with the fact that Scott had never fallen asleep at the wheel trying to kill himself.

I had never worked at Eckler's, or the funeral home, or Crown Simplimatic, or even the Job Place.

None of us, not Dana, Robert, Beth, or I had ever called Mary a slacker.

Mark McGwire had never hit 70 homeruns or 58 or even 50 and Sammy Sosa was an overpaid underachieving ballplayer.

We all had very rarely if ever heard the word millineum and had never heard of YK2.

No one had ever heard of El Niño or La Niña and there was no way that there would ever be a hurricane or fires in Brevard County to make people leave their homes.

ESPN2 had just started and ESPNews--what the hell is that? ESPN Classic--what? ESPN Magazine--that'll never happen.

A 1985 Topps Mark McGwire rookie card was worth $10.

The Tennessee Volunteers hadn't won a National Title in football since 1941.

The Miami Hurricanes dominated Florida State in football.

Dawson's Creek--is that where Richard Dawson was born?

Coco was a really old dog that we expected wouldn't be around much longer and now four years later unfortunately, god rest her . . . what she's still . . . well I guess some things never change.

Nobody had ever heard of Monica Lewinsky or Columbine High School and George Bush has a son . . . What . . . He has two sons and one will be governor of Florida and the other might be president, yeah sure, and I suppose Hillary Clinton will be governor of New York too.

And last but certainly not least, I hadn't yet realized that the people in your life are by far the most important thing.  I love you very much mom and dad, and I know there's no way I could have made it through these last four years without your support.  Thank you.