I never thought I would be that guy. The one who writes a fan letter to a celebrity or band. But here I sit on the train back from Macchu Picchu hammering this out on my phone. Lincoln Park hasn’t released a new album in about 7 years, a lot has happened in my life since then, when they last left me I was an angry young man of 23 just coming off of an intense breakup. Their album Meteroa was out and it mirrored my intense emotions dealing with the end to a 7 year relationship that had dominated my life for the majority of high school and college. I remember driving around by myself in my 91 Mazda Navajo playing the songs as loud as the speakers would handle screaming the lyrics and pounding the steering wheel in frustration about my life. I would learn that the anger would subside eventually and I would get on with my life. Even back then I thought about writing them to thank them for what they had done for me… But I didn’t
So now here I am 29 years old on a train in Peru sipping wine with my new wife listening to ‘A Thousand Suns’ while she reads the princess bride. How far I have come. The track ‘Robot Boy’ comes along just as the snowcapped peaks of the Andes appear in the distance. 7 years ago I never thought I could meet someone like Laurel, someone who would change my life in so many ways. I wish I could have heard this song when I was at my lowest point, but hearing it now just reminds me of the journey that has brought me here.

You say the weight of the world
Has kept you from letting go
And you think compassion’s a flaw
But you’ll never let it show
And your sure you’ve hurt in a way
That no one will ever know
But someday the weight of the world
Will give you strength to go

Hold on the weight of the world
Will give you the strength to go

I guess they have matured in the past 7 years along with me, being globe trotting rock stars will do the to you I guess.
The next song waiting for the end speaks to me a out letting go of all if the anger in my past and sharing everything with my partner I life.
Laurel, I love you.

And to the guys in Linkin Park, Thanks.