I absolutely hate it when I know that I am right and no one else believes me. I hate it.
During my senior year of high school, I was still working at the stationary store in the early part of the school year and was heading into work with friends. I was sitting in the back seat of the car as we drove. The radio was on and “She’s Like the Wind” came on. I said to everyone in the car, “You know Patrick Swayze sings this song1.” The looked at me as if I was nuts and pelted me with instant denials. Well, I knew for a fact that he sang the song but nothing I could do would convince my co-commuters. They not only denied my claim, they scorned it with contumely. I fumed. There are few times I remember being angry, especially over trivialities, but this was one of those time.
Some time later, weeks, months maybe, the song came on again in the presence of everyone involved and the D.J. announced it as “Patrick Swayze with ‘She’s Like the Wind.'” I began to jump up and down excitedly. “See, I told you. I told you Patrick Swayze sang that song!” My friends looked at me as if I was nuts.
“What are you talking about?”
“That day in the car,” I said, “when the song came on. I told you it was Patrick Swayze and you guys denied it and told me I was crazy.”
The looked perplexed. “We did no such thing,” they said. “You never told us that Patrick Swayze sang that song.”
I think at that point I must have turned purple and fainted dead away. I don’t remember anything thereafter.
The strange thing is, one mellows as one gets older. Intellectual battles I fought in high school and college, I know merely smile knowingly at and move on. I don’t get sucked in as easily. I think it is an air of self-confidence you develop over the decades that you simply don’t have as an 18-year old. If I know I am right today and others deny it, I simply smile and say, “Okay.” This drives Kelly nuts on the rare times that it happens. But why push the issue? I know I am right and I don’t need anyone else to validate my own opinion. This has helped keep me sane.
The one exception–the only exception–is that damned Patrick Swayze song, “She’s Like the Wind.” On those rare occasions that I hear it, I am suddenly transported to the back seat of that car, face red, pleading with the people inside, yes, yes, it is Patrick Swayze. My heart beat quickens, my pulse rises, my face flushes. A well-trained doctor or amateur passerby who caught sight of me might think me on the verge of cardiac arrest.
And I suspect, at times, they’d be right.
But just in case you needed any further proof, this:
Where was the Internet back in 1990?
- Not only did he sing it, he co-wrote it as well. ↩
RSS - Posts
Don’t you hate when no one else believes you when you’re right?? I totally get this. I did know Patrick Swayze sang that song, though I was surprised when I first found out. Once you know, though, you can hear it.
What a fun post. Glad I came across it. I’m going to have this song stuck in my head now…