Growing up, my dad was the oldest of 3, so he didn't have someone to look up to in his immediate family. Because of this, he looked up to his older cousin Mark.  Mark lived in Connecticut, so my dad only went to go see him once or twice a year. When my dad was around 11, he and his family went down to visit his cousin. At that point, Mark was a teenager and he was listening to music, skateboarding, and other stuff. My dad completely looked up to him and thought that everything Mark did was cool and made my dad want to do everything Mark was doing. This is when my dad purchased his first music album. He went to a music store and bought the new Van Halen album, 1984 which had just released. For the rest of the trip my dad listened to the album non-stop. It was not only important to my dad because the album was good, but also because it made him feel more independent and made him feel older.  It was also really cool for him because even though he only saw his cousin once or twice a year, having that album with him always reminded him of his cousin. Overall the new album that he bought was really important for my dad because it gave my dad feel older since none of his brothers had anything like it, and it reminded him of the person who he looked up to growing up, Mark.