Forget My Name
Artist – New Found Glory
Song – Forget My Name
Album – Sticks and Stones
In 2002 I was on staff with a missions organization in Japan. We started out with ~6 weeks in Lausanne, Switzerland, then hopped on a plane bound for Tokyo, Japan for a few weeks at the 2002 World Cup hosted by South Korea and Japan. The next destination was Osaka, Japan, where we spent several weeks at a remote location operated by the organization. It was during this time that I started feeling particularly homesick, knowing that I still had a couple months before I was going to be back stateside. I don’t know why I felt homesick, as I absolutely loved Japan, was surrounded by a very diverse group of people from various nations whom I loved spending time with, and knew that my family back in Arkansas was in a shambles and not in a situation I relished the idea of returning to. Yet I had several friends stateside that I missed, and for some reason the knowledge that they were going on with their lives while I was halfway across the world just…bothered me for some reason.
It was around this time that I was in a Tower Records store in Osaka and noticed that New Found Glory had a new album out, Sticks and Stones, and the Japanese version had extra tracks. So of course I picked up a copy, knowing I’d have something unique to return to the US with. The album was a massive success for the band, going platinum and peaking at #4 on the Billboard charts. But rather than the album singles, the song I gravitated toward was “Forget My Name”. The song is very catchy, but what really caught my attention was the line “it won’t be long before you forget my name”. This summed up my feelings about my friends living their lives, seemingly oblivious to my existence. “I’m leaving you, this time it’s for good” resonated with me due to the fact that I didn’t really know what was next in my life after that trip, and if I would actually return to Arkansas any time soon. When I hear this song now, I remember that time in my life, all of the transformation changes in my life that trip fostered, and how it felt to be overseas not knowing if anyone was thinking about you in your absence.
