Release the eelhead!

Time, it really does. I remember hearing stories when I was a kid that my mom would mention running into somebody from her past long ago, and they got to talk. Of course, being young I couldn't understand what the big deal was. There would be talk of this and that and the things they did that my grandmother never knew about. At times it was exciting but didn't really have much to do with me. I hardly paid any attention to any of it; I remember only a couple of stories, but that is it. I've had the opportunity to chat again with a friend from long ago, and it seems like yesterday that we last talked and saw each other, but it's been about 19 years. The flood of emotions, happiness, excitement, anxiety, and even sadness. All of these have their place for a reason because back then, I was young and dumb. This is one person I have truly missed, so the opportunity to chat with them has now been a most enjoyable experience. I was worried at first that they didn't want...

The fallen, I am surrounded by them; I have, at times, become one of them. They are the ones who have given up and flow along with nothing to achieve, nothing to accomplish. They flood around me and in me, keeping me from rising, whether it is my internal demons or those around me. This is not my course, my path, I know this and feel this. They cannot and will not hold me physically or mentally, restrained to sorrow and sadness. Clawing until my fingers blood, until my mind is exhausted, I will not become one of them. My destiny will not allow this; my dreams still come, showing me what I can and must become. I am a stranger to the place around me, constantly surrounded by the fallen. Those ones that care for nothing, no one, only themselves. They will claw at you, pulling at you, slowing your attempts to overcome, but there is still some hope. There are a select few who are genuine, who will pull you up by the arms from the trampling masses of the fallen and their clawing grips. The...