“Let the boy die, and the man be born”
I’m going to steal/butcher this quote from George RR Martin’s A Dance with Dragons, even disenchanted as I am with the series as a whole, because his writing is eminently quoteworthy. Shame there’s so much dross surrounding the quality stuff these days…but anyway, moving on.
I learned some very harsh lessons about life, about relationships, and about myself this past year. I didn’t like learning them; then again, who does? It’s part and parcel of becoming an adult, I guess, especially now that I’m out of college.
It was hard, realizing that some people just aren’t worth being friends with, especially when they’re your co-workers and have a lot in common with you. But I think you can take the measure of a man (or a woman, etc) by their friends, and they weren’t the type of person I wanted to emulate. Of course, I’m not a paragon of saintly virtue by any means, or even a particularly good person. I have, however, always tried to become a better person in order to do good things, to be wiser, more responsible, more empathetic. And the people I respect, the ones I call my friends, help me do that, through their kindness or by example.
I hope one day to be somebody truly worthy of their respect as well.
