For this writing challenge, I googled “top 200 Billboard albums” from a meaningful year for me.  The year I chose was 1990 — the year I graduated high school.  At the top of that list?  Janet Jackson’s Rhythm Nation 1814.  This was her fourth studio album.  Her third album, Control, was also quite popular, but this one is my personal favorite of all of her records.

Instead of sticking to some rigid writing prompt akin to what a college professor would assign, I’ll just linger on the memories that manifested within my cranium when I made this discovery.

The album was released at the beginning of my senior year.  My favorite single from it (embedded above) wouldn’t come out for another year, but I was already obsessed with both the album and that song, in particular, by that time.  

I’d had enough of school and decided to “take a break” from it after graduation.  Forget that I had been offered a full nursing scholarship from my local hospital — a scholarship that came with only one stipulation.  “You have to come work for us for a little while after you graduate.”

The horror.  A free education AND a job?  Yeah.  I passed on that.  After all, I had so much going for me at Wal-Mart where I was working part time as a cashier.  

Then along came that guy.  The one who would eventually be my first, only, and now ex husband.  This song was released around the same time I met him.  

We were never going to make it.  I didn’t know it then, because I thought I was in love.  Well… I was in love, but he was not my soulmate.  He was my first sexual experience and my first love.  The one who gave me my only child.  But he was not THE one.  

Sometimes, I regret not taking that scholarship.  Especially over the last year.  I could have helped so many people.  On the other hand, I would have put my own health at risk doing so.  I could have saved myself a lot of heart break, too.  On the other hand, I wouldn’t have my son without having loved his father.

Nursing was just a job to me anyway.  It was never my real dream.  That dream was a little harder to reach at that time and my resources were limited.  I tried later, after the divorce, but that may be a story for another post. 

For the most part, this album brings back good memories.  Memories of a young girl in her bedroom trying and failing to mimic the dance from the Rhythm Nation music video.  Driving to school with this song at full volume.  A song that was known only to those who had the album.  And oh yes.  Every lyric memorized.

I wasn’t surprised it was the most popular.  

Do you have a connection to this album?  What’s your favorite song from it?  Tell me about it in the comments!  And if you enjoy my writing, please share!