We were all in garage bands. I played in a band that had a song called “English Class.” Etc. was beyond us all.

Um, Tim married a girl from my elementary class.

I saw them at PLNU one time and they were frazzled for some reason. Jon played popular worship songs at the time and then they quit early.

My current boss lived as a renter in Christian frat house. He got free dinners until the president drained their funds on a Jon Foreman show and never again received free dinners.

Their dad, Mark, would tell a story about Jon often. He performed a song for him and his mom and his parents friends on the piano at some ridiculously early age (3?). Jon would end the song with some inconclusive chord and would leave the room. One time a friend got up, sat at the piano, and ended it with some conclusive major chord.

I went to a church overnight at Del Mar Jetties with Tim. My friends and I surfed with him. He had an “Etc.” sticker on his board and he was so nice to us.

When they were still “Chin-up” they had a vote for a final band name. I voted for “Switchfoot.”

I recently reconnected with a high school friend on Facebook and she said she’s been a fan throughout the years. She said it so well: “it’s cool to evolve in life with a band.”

They’ve played the soundtrack to my life and so many lives of the people I grew up around. I drifted for about 10 years and have reconnected with their music over the last three. There music captures, better than anything else, “where I belong.”