So there's this guy you see. He's a friend of a friend.

When I originally met him he was quiet-ish. Very opinionated though, which to some may seem an odd combination, but he chose his moments well. He was smart-ish. I say ish because you can know everything on this planet about maths and science and books and things, but if you don't know how to handle people, or, better still, now NOT to handle them, then quite frankly you should probably avoid society as much as possible.

No, seriously, stay INSIDE.

So this boy moved. He did what all good boys and girls do and got the hell OUT of our home town as swiftly as possible after finishing school. My hometown is far from the best place to get on with your life, let alone actually have one to begin with.

This boy got a job, but was still, like a few of people I know, living off Mummy and Daddy's, polished paycheck, despite having an income of his own. And this boy, now, slowly, having made new friends who don't know any better, has torn strips off everyone he used to know. All those people that may have been there when and if things go to absolute shit, now can't stand the sight or sound of him. Silly boy. Silly, silly boy. He's got a marvelously large head and an ego to match. His fashion sense: Vastly improved. His sexuality: Who the fuck knows. He's changed it that many times I struggle to keep up and at the extent of others, no less.

I suppose, given he lives in a city, he's feeling right cosmpolitan. Amongst the bretheren, right now, he probably feels he was always meant to have.

If I could give him some advice...

THAT - doesn't last forever. Eventually all those people who met and knew you intially and thought your were fun, whimsical, exciting, will get sick of your opininated views and the way you seek to push them on others. Eventually the new hairstyle won't suit you quite so well because everyone else has gone down that right at one stage or another. Your attitudes and opinions towards other people in the twisted little game you currently find yourself playing will be noticed and noted. You can only pit people against eachother for so long. After a while they get tired of it and find someone else to blame and at the end of the day it all leads to you.

How unfortunate.

I can understand exploration. I can understand marvelling in the new and unreal after living so long somewhere where minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years blurred together into unsatisfying muck. I can understand relishing the thrill of satisfaction after so long feeling hungry and unsaited. All that I can understand. I've felt it. I've been there. I'm still there and my god, at some times more than others, it feels good. But not, I hope, though can readily admit there may be times when it has been the case, at the expense of the people who genuinely care about you. Who deserve nothing less than your upmost respect.

No.

Because they will find themselves at the peak of that thrill for a lot longer than you will. They won't need to take another hit, because they'll stay there, a long with people like them and it'll be because of those people that they'll remain so uplifted.

It's all nothing if there's no-one to share it with.