Pieces of You

An acquaintance of mine warned me about putting too much value in the people I know. Her intention was to tell me that I need to be my own person.

I disagree.

The people I know, the ones I call friends, are people of the highest quality, people I am honored to share my life with. Those people give me strength, and they affect my personality in all kinds of ways, even those people I only know for a short time.

For instance a girl I dated for only a few weeks, she says "I know" in the context of "You like to not smell like garbage? That's crazy talk", and then she says, "I know" with a huge smile and in an almost song like tone. Now every time I'm in that situation, or hear someone say those words in an incredulous sarcastic tone, I am reminded of how that part of her is still a part of me.

It's like when I go back to Lafayette and people say "Let's kick this pig" meaning "I'm ready to go". What most of them don't even realize is that the expression comes from a fencing time before they knew who Will Read was, let alone who originally was ready to kick pigs.

So you see, I'm an agglomeration of the people that are in or have passed through my life. I draw very little distinction between the people I know and have known, and the person I am - they're virtually synonymous.