RENT!

Five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes
Five hundred twenty five thousand moments so dear
Five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes
How do you measure, measure a year

In daylights,
In sunsets,
In midnights,
In cups of coffee,
In inches, in miles, in laughter, in strife
In five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes
How do you measure a year in a life?

How about, love?
How about, love?
How about, love?
Measure in love…
Seasons of love…
Seasons of love…

Five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes,
Five hundred twenty five thousand journeys to plan,
Five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes,
How do you measure a life of a woman or a man?

In truths that she learned,
Or in times that he cried,
In bridges he burned,
Or the way that she died,

Its time now, to sing out though,
The story never ends,
Let’s celebrate, remember a year in a life of friends,

In diapers – report cards
In spoke wheels – in speeding tickets
In contracts – dollars
In funerals – in births

Five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes,
How do you figure a last year on earth?

I can’t… I’m so… It’s just…. argh!  Can’t type… Can’t think… No words… Can’t breathe just now… so excited… emotions flooding…

Wait.

deep breath

There.

RENT is showing again in Manila.  At the same time that I’m going there.  And my schedule is free.  At ticket prices I can afford. More than willing to spend for actually.

I remember how I cried over it.  I remember how I SQUUEE’d over it.  I remember how I laughed over it, and loved over it, and never got over it.  I remember each line of every song.  I remember reading the entire libretto in one timeless afternoon.  I remember listening to the Original Broadway Cast recording over and over and over again and mouthing the words to the lyrics.  I remember goosebumps and heart flutters every time I read or hear or encounter anything that it even remotely mentions it.

I remember watching it for the first time and being in awe after it.  The final crashing roar of applause had died down, people were beginning to file out of their seats, and I still couldn’t move.  It was as if my entire body was still trying to process how to react to all the raw emotion that was currently exploding in my mind after watching the play.  I was 19 years old, and I didn’t know all those things existed.

[I also remember being vaguely confused over liking it, because some of the themes are hardly Christian, and the main characters aren’t really bastions of morality, but I got it all sorted out inside eventually, and I learned how to like it and still remain myself.]

Anyway.  Rent.  RENT!  In all caps no less, because it deserves to be in all caps always.