Dearth Medicating

Youth felt hopeless and lonely.  There were TV shows, most of them being so middle-of-the-road they were depressing.  There were books and magazines, if you could get your hands on them, with ideas and characters you could identify with.  Other than that, there was nothing.  Maybe try to find a distant radio station in the middle of the night with something interesting.

Getting free felt impossible.  Dreaming about it imposed a uselessly wasteful fantasy.  You just resigned yourself to isolation.

Sitting here, right now, listening to bands I'd have never known existed back in those pre-internet days, does a decent job of mitigating a little of the past.  There's nothing it can do to erase the effects, though.  It's just medication.