I sit here tonight stunned at the news of Whitney Houston's death. When I think about it for too long, I find myself balling up inside and fighting back tears. But why? It's obvious that Whitney and I weren't friends. Heck, I had never even seen her in concert. I wasn't the biggest Whitney Houston fan either, though I admit to owning almost every record she ever made.
So why has the news of her passing affected me so? Once I thought about it, I discovered that many of my best childhood memories were made to her music. I can vividly recall singing into my favorite hairbrush songs like "How Will I Know?" and "I Wanna Dance With Somebody", while wearing a long towel on my head and dancing in front of the mirror. I can remember my best friend and I trying oh-so-hard to mimic her awe-inspiring voice on songs like, "Saving All My Love for You" and "I'm Your Baby Tonight" while giggling uncontrollably when our voices would crack with the high notes. Whitney's music was also there at my Jr. High graduation ceremony when our entire class decided to sing "The Greatest Love of All" as our class song.
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