I will always believe that despite everything, we ended up turning out okay. Yeah, some of us didn't quite make it out, others rely on medication or special blue lights to stay alive, and yes, some of us have trouble speaking sometimes because our minds go so much faster than our lips ever will. Some of us are covered in scars. We've come a long way though, and it hasn't been easy. It hasn't been all bad, either. We had lots of good times together, even though a lot of it consisted of things our parents wouldn't approve of. They don't really need to know, though, do they? We all get caught in between where we are and where we want to be. Whether it's another hospital bed or an international flight, we find a way to get through it. We don't sleep much anymore. Actually, some of us sleep more than we used to before. Most of us figure out a way to make it work, though. We don't let it hold us back. Well, sometimes it does, despite how much we try to stop it. But the point is, we're trying. We all took it in different ways but that's one thing we all have in common: we're doing our best and always have been. It's not like being sick, because the symptoms we show won't get us out of work or school unless we really lose it. We're the kids that end up in parking lots at three in the morning with cold hands and old cigarettes and bad music. We look out for each other though, and always have been. We're not as close as we used to be. Well, I guess we don't really talk anymore. But we used to be there for each other, and if anything went wrong with one of us, we all knew and tried to help. We were a team, really. And we did what we needed to for each other. Including strategic confiscations of car keys or some other things that I'm not going to write about. We’ve grown apart since, and we're not what we were. That's okay, though. Change happens, and life doesn't stop for anyone. Some of us have new places, schools, significant others. Some of us are still where we were then, struggling through the absence of the others. Here's the thing, though, it's unclear whether we'll ever see each other again. It's pretty certain that our little group is never going to together like it was. Does that upset me? No, not at all. Well, maybe a little. Okay, yeah, it does. But that's how time works. We've all got new friends and we don't lean on each other like we used to. I don't know if that's because we've gotten better or if it's because we've just gotten better at hiding it. Regardless, I don't think that it matters, because we've reintegrated into society pretty well, I think. When we do see each other, we share the memory of what used to be, but that's all. It's thoroughly and truly over. It's been so long that sometimes I don't remember the stories that I used to tell at that table by the window. But the one thing I'll never forget is how it felt. We were all misfits, stuck somewhere between life and death. Some of us were further off the deep end than others, but we accepted each other for what we were. All the breakdowns, the bad ideas, the half-baked revenge plans that never got put into action, the worse ones that did, everything came with the territory. It was where we belonged. Now, it's our turns to carve out places where we belong for ourselves. We've moved out and on, and now it's our turn to make it on our owns. And we've all found different places, from international flight terminals halfway across the world to the same bedrooms we spent so much time in back then. No matter where we go, though, we'll always carry the badge of what we used to be. We are and will always be those kids, whether the flag flies above us or not.
