Out of Touch

The new year is right around the corner. This is the time of year where celebrations pop off and so forth. Alcohol is always a dangerous fire-starter. I understand that people will have a couple drinks and have fun, but at some point logic has to take over. A couple days ago, I ran into an old friend from high school that I hadn't seen in a couple years. During the course of our conversation, he asks me if I had heard about our old teammate and his classmate. I hadn't but I knew from the way that he asked me that I wouldn't like his answer. There was that very brief awkward moment of silence then he finally tells me that our friend is dead. The past few years have hardened me. Since my ninth grade year in high school, I have lost nearly ten of my friends. Three of those have been killed by a drunk driver. Maybe I'm just a lame ass dude because I don't drink. But there is something wrong with that picture. My hometown doesn't have more than twenty thousand people there. How could I lose that many? I'm only twenty seven. I shouldn't be going to funerals for my peers. Now maybe anybody who wonders why I trash my hometown every chance I get will understand where I'm coming from. It's like a black hole. Even if you get out, it still touches you, directly or indirectly. It is what it is I guess. I can't fail for them. It doesn't even matter what I do.