2004-10-13
11:34 p.m.

A Year's Measure of a Man

A year ago today, we were all listening to THIS for the first time.

We purchased them at midnight, ripping the cellophane wrappers off with our teeth on the way to our cars, and blasting the stereo as we drove home from CD release parties all around the country.

And listening to those songs, it finally sunk in that it was real.

Clay had an album.

A real CD.

He was a recording artist.

This boy,

the one we had been so protective of,

so proud of,

this was what we wanted for him.

What some said would never happen,

What maybe we didn't always believe was possible.

But it happened.

As we first listened to an actual Clay Aiken CD, it sunk in.

We had done it.

He had done it.

This was the culmination of everything we had dreamed of.

It didn't get any better than this.

Or so we thought then.

Oh, how little we knew.

On that crisp October night, how could we have even imagined what more there was to come.

We had as yet no concept of the measure of the man.

So who's in for another year?

--by Katynka