Over the Borderline

It never fails. Whenever I hear Madonna's 'Borderline', no matter how old or how often they play the song to death, I find myself singing along with it. And I'd grin sheepishly at the thought that this gesture is a giveaway for anyone who'd take a guess at my age.

I was about thirteen then, and I still remember dancing to this song at someone's birthday party --- no, not the kind that had balloons and a magic show, but one that had flashing strobe lights and a mobile DJ. Come to think of it, the term 'mobile' had nothing to do with cellular phones back in the day. Anyway, that was when I could outstay anyone on the dance floor, with nothing but the high of being out-and-about coursing through my barely 100-pound frame. No alcohol required (I wouldn't be having my first alcoholic drink until five years later). The high would continue whenever we'd play our favorite music out of mixtapes and would track the songs' rise on the music charts. We didn't 'shuffle' tracks, instead we'd set the audiocassette player on auto-reverse to keep the sounds going.

My teenhood began with Madonna, along with the other eighties new wave artists, with my 'coming of age' being simply marked by a trendy haircut and pair of dangling earrings. I was among the few girls who'd wear eyeliner during my high school freshman year.

During those days there was no Facebook --- well, to be precise about it, in that same year 'Borderline' was released, the famous Facebook co-creator was born. Kids in those days hung out at home or played video games at the arcade. I'm sure there were a lot of other things that teenagers did at that time, but I happened to have hung out with the 'good kids'.'Social networking' for us was a face-to-face activity --- although some would take this a little farther and exchange first kisses in the dark after a party. Kids do that, too, nowadays, right? But in our time no one would broadcast it on a shoutout, tagline, or status.

I really do get a real kick out of singing "Borderline...feels like I'm going to lose my mind," which to me is a way of admitting you're head-over-heels crazy about someone. Hmmm...I think singing more of Madonna's songs while striving to remember what it used to feel like as a love-smitten teenager MIGHT actually be a healthy remedy for someone like me who, sadly, has come to a point of sour-graping and indulging in mortifying doses of 'emo'.