Thursday, March 13, 2008

youth is wasted on the young

My friend ruffles through her bag, takes out a cigarette and brings it to her lips. "Ahhhh..." A mild form of ecstasy passes her face briefly as wisps of smoke danced around her. "I haven't smoked, like, the whole day."

I sit beside her, witnessing my friend in her marathon run to get lung cancer. She's doing well in the race.

"So..." I begin. "Your aim is to get lung cancer, huh?"

My friend's face tells me she doesn't like the sound of that. She is silent for a moment before asserting, "I don't smoke a lot. I only smoke, like, once a day!"

"Yeah, that adds up to 365 times a year." I pause. "That's like, 365 attempts to get lung cancer!"

My friend doesn't look pleased at all. Honesty is a rare commodity, nowadays.

My friend, who is a heavy drinker and smoker, laments that I do neither of those. "It's a pity you don't drink, because it's when you drink, that you talk crap." And, her argument is that you can have a hell of a great time, bonding and talking crap with your friends when you are drunk-pissed.

What good is verbal diarrhoea if all that comes out is shit and crap? (pun totally intended)

This is why George Bernard Shaw said: "Youth is wasted on the young." We are at the peak of our physical health, our minds are at its most alert, and what do we decide to do with this boon? We go out, party, and get ourselves drunk-pissed.

Nice.

"So, basically, you don't drink, you don't smoke, and you don't do weed." One second later, "That's pretty good, you know."

Sometimes, I forbid my friend to smoke, and she listens. And, because I don't drink, it means that time spent with me isn't spent on drinking.

I think that I'm a very positive influence. This is the reason why people should try hanging out with nerds more often.

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