OP-ED: Reflecting on Blink-182 Day and realizing just how much this band has helped everyone

It’s the 182nd day of the year, which means it’s Blink-182 Day!

Congratulations, you’ve just wasted half a year!

Solely, July 1st is a holiday for most blink-182 fans. Today is a day where we get to celebrate the band and what it means to us. So, instead of a traditional article, it feels appropriate to explain what blink-182 means to me and probably plenty of other people around the world.

Since their rise in 1993 up until now, blink-182 has always been the face of forgotten suburbia -the kids who were never accepted and found a way to express themselves through toilet humor, songs about girls, and lashing out against the everyday public for not understanding them.

blink-182 has an identity in the punk subculture that’s embedded in its members, past and present. From standing out in the crowds to growing up in broken households, their upbringings were told through fun and sad songs alike, which resonated with fans.

Like many of their longtime fans, growing up in a broken household meant you needed an escape. There’s nothing more powerful than music when you’re going through tough times. In my fair share of tough times, blink-182 was always the main source of escape. The music was a welcome mat to a world where you were able to express your frustrations and differences with the world in a comfortable, healthy manner, alongside plenty of other people who were going through the same damn thing.

My earliest memories go back to blink-182. I fondly remember sitting in my backyard listening to their self-titled record in 2005 on an old Coca-Cola machine that had a stereo in it was a regular in the summer time. I don’t think an eight-year-old would listen to that record religiously, but when that machine ate up the CD, I had no choice. In hindsight, it was for the better.

Fast forward to high school, where I met friends with the similar mindset and music taste. I can’t tell you how many hours/days we spent listening to blink-182, whether it be sitting in a basement talking or driving until 4am just to belt out, “Family Reunion” to people just waking up to start their busy day.

Even in college, blink-182 helped me break out of my shell and get to know my colleagues and professors. One professor in mind even wrote the full lyrics to, “Family Reunion” on the back of my final project. He even taught a few lectures and included blink into it. It was so cool to see that even college institutions are embedded with the sub culture. That’s when I realized no matter how old you are, music has a way to bridge people together and create a familiarity between total strangers.

Even as a 21-year-old and the many ways this band was changed and reformed, it’s still the same brand and culture. It doesn’t matter who is in blink-182, whether it be Tom DeLonge, Matt Skiba, or Scott Raynor, that identity will always be there.

So, thank you blink-182, for helping millions of kids find their way and providing a sub culture for them to indulge and grow up in their own way. Through tough times or fun ones, you’ve made all the difference.

Blink life, for life.

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