I remember the day like it was yesterday, yet it was so many years ago. It was the day after Labor Day 1991 and I was working in South Central L.A.

By 11 AM it was already hot out. I sat in my beat up little Nissan waiting for my next work appointment at a hospital. I had been half listening to the radio which left me feeling bored. At the time the dullness of the song playing seemed appropriate, some song that had been overplayed for the entire summer and the songs to follow would likely be just as predictable. A similar dull apathy had taken over my life as I had been feeling restless with my circumstances.

As I reached for my work papers something came on the radio that made me pause. A drum beat and guitar riff that sounded more like former garage shows I had been to than something that should have been on the radio. I turned up the radio and then turned it up again as a chorus came in that gave me goosebumps down my arms. By the time the song ended one of my speaker covers had fallen off the door panel and I was sitting there in shock. It wasn’t the greatest song and it wasn’t even that well made, but this song lit a fire in me and I suddenly felt like things were not as dull and flat as they had been. The music sounded raw and exciting like it was being played live. It was a “What the hell did I just listen to” moment.

After my work appointment I called a friend who was interning over at KROQ radio in Pasadena. I mentioned the song and he cut me off saying “man you have no idea what’s going on with this”. He seemed super excited and told me to come see him. I drove there that afternoon and met him in the parking lot. He hands me this tape and tells me he copied this from an early release sent to the station. It contained the song I had just heard plus two other songs from an album set to be released later in the month.

For the next few weeks I played this tape nonstop, until my old cassette tape player finally chewed it up. This music woke me up, it made me feel differently about everything going on in my life, and it just spoke to me. It sounds sort of goofy now but that song somehow saved me.

Nirvana – Smells Like Teen Spirit. To this day that song will come on and the opening guitar and drop of the drum beat takes me back to that hot September day. I will never forget how it made me feel.

My hope is that there will be more days like that one. Moments that wake me up and make me take notice. I live for those days.