Eyes locked forward, I zoomed away from my dad's car before somebody important — like an eighth-grader — saw that I'd been driven by my parents.

Quickly distancing myself from the lameness, I crossed the moonlit parking lot and found my new friends leaning against a brick wall and looking intentionally bored. With hands in my pockets and shoulders shrugged, I gave a quick nod to the group and followed them inside to the cafe; where the band was playing. Approaching the roar of flailing drum sticks and whining guitars, I was convinced my 13-year-old childhood had been in anticipation of this night in March of 2000, when I experienced my first local punk rock show.

It's the foundation for countless coming-of-age stories for American teens. Punk rock for many angst-ridden minors is the alternative to the cultural status quo, the back entrance to adolescence. Now, one of the most iconic groups of the pop punk generation of the late 1990s, Blink-182 has announced its return after a four-year hiatus, along with its plans to tour the world and record a new album.

Mark Hoppus, Tom DeLonge and Travis Barker, who were Blink's three members, appeared onstage together for the first time since December 2004 to present an award at the Grammys on Sunday. On its official site, the band said it expects big things in 2009. "Friendships reformed. 17 years deep in our legacy," it said.

Travis Barker was one of two survivors in a plane crash in South Carolina last September, and recently underwent surgery for "extensive nerve damage" causing numbness in his hand. It'll take eight to 10 weeks to recover, he said. Tom DeLonge told "Extra" Barker's near-tragedy helped nudge the bandmates back together. "When you're in a band, you have this unspoken bond.we always knew it was inevitable" that Blink-182 would reunite, Delonge said.

Blink is among the most successful punk bands, and therefore, perhaps among the least representative voices of the punk rock movement, but love them or hate them, their music was a soundtrack to which our generation navigated the stormy sea of hormones from middle school dances and zits to feelings of abandonment and our first swings at love. They may have formulaic songs and penis joke lyrics, but for me, Blink was one of several rites of passage.

In March 2000, I was a seventh-grader trying to climb a rung on the social ladder by gaining membership with an up-and-coming group of rebellious preteens. They messed up their hair, shopped at Hot Topic and had a mischievous smirk tattooed on their faces at all times. I sported the latest in Old Navy clearance rack fashion, and there was no wiping away my excited, hopelessly innocent grin.

Inside that cafe; I was bombarded by images of lip rings and cigarettes dangling from teens' faces as they pulsated to the out-of-key and off-tempo quartet behind the microphones and amps. The "Irish Guilt" programmed into my psyche from my upbringing prevented me from ever truly belonging in the punk rock scene, but as a pubescent teen lost in the din of a garage band's big break, I felt plenty liberated.

Straz Tower RAs are coordinating a middle school dance this Friday from 9 p.m. to midnight in the Rec Plex gym. Go get your nostalgia on by reliving the most awkward of life stages to plenty of '90s music: pop, grunge and yodeling feminism.

Welcome back, Blink.