A Lil' Note

This note is for everyone... from true blue Immature Fans... to those who bailed out.

Dear Everyone:

This note is being written for two purposes. One, to try to make some of Immature's ex-fans understand where they went wrong and Two, to try to make the fans that are still true understand why some fans bailed out on them. This note is to tell them that I understand why they bailed out.... How do I understand? Because I was almost one of them. Yep, me.. TJ, loyal Immature Fan was on the verge of dumping Immature like yesterday's newspaper.

It all started on September 23, 1997. Like any other Immature Fan, I rushed to the nearest CD store and bought my brand new copy of The Journey. I went home and headed straight for my room. I popped the CD in, relaxed and had my first listen to The Journey. And guess what y'all? I HATED IT!! Everything had changed.... their hair...their clothes.... their voices...and their lyrics. All Alone had touched my heart, but other than that the album didn't appeal to me at all. I put the CD back in its case and put it away. I went back to listening to We Got It and Playtyme Is Over. They were more my style. This went on for weeks until one day I was looking at some of my posters of Immature with my cousin. She picked one of them up and looks at the rest and shakes her head. "These are old!" she said. "Where's your new ones?" I went through my folder and found them all squished up at the back. It was then that I realized the I hadn't even looked at them since I put them in there.

Even after my cuz had gone home, her question haunted me. I found my only-once-played CD and listened to it again as I surrounded myself with new pictures of them. After the last song was over, it hit me. I finally realized why I didn't enjoy this album or new look as much as I should have. They were growing up. Their hair, the clothes, their voices, the lyrics... everything was more mature and I wasn't used to it. I discovered that in my mind they were still the little twelve year old boys they were when Playtyme Is Over was released. For some strange reason, I guess I didn't think that they'd ever grow up. But after a couple of days of thinking I came to realize that they weren't twelve anymore and they would never be twelve again.

Over the next few weeks I started letting go of the adorable twelve year olds that I had once loved so much and started accepting the fine, young men they turned into.

The more I let go of their twelve year old image, the more I listened to The Journey. The more I listened, the more I began to like their new matured sound and lyrics. And now, The Journey is my favorite Immature album!

I know this sounds familiar to some of you out there, because you're either going through it or have gone through it. And then there are those of you who took the easy route. You dumped them. You weren't willing to spend enough time to fix your problem with them and you know what? I'm glad you aren't fans anymore because it's obvious that you weren't good enough for Immature in the first place. When you decide to be someone's fan, you're making a commitment. Saying that you'll be there through thick and thin. Whether they have a platinum CD out or NOT.

To you all out there who are confused... remember this one thing: Those three twelve year old boys that stole your hearts almost five years ago died. They died so that young men could develop. And you have to accept that.... everyone has to grow up sometime.