I've pretty much realized that the journey itself doesn't matter, it's who goes with you. I could tie this completely into the Lord of the Rings, I mean seriously... Sam and Frodo, Aragorn/Legolas/Gimli, the entire Fellowship, etc, but I'll just control myself for a moment. It doesn't matter where you're going or what you're doing, no matter how horrible it is, how utterly painful it is or how much you don't want to be doing it, it's not as bad when your friends are with you. I remember in 5th grade when my parents forgot to pick me and a friend up and we had to walk up three ginormous hills to get home, and walking up hills and running are probably my two least favourite things in the world, but it passed by without any pain and I look back on it as a fond memory because the two of us just talked and laughed the whole time, without noticing the respiratory problems and the muscle pain.
On the other hand, I am saddened by this because I think of all the hours I spend at layout, and the few hours I spend with my friends and I ask myself, "It could all be so different." If only the Oracle were staffed with my friends and not those people, my life would be so much happier. I would still be working four hours a day after school at layout, but those four hours would be filled with so much more happiness; not just the happiness I get from being on a newspaper, but happiness of being around people I love and who love me, and not having to think about what I say or stare at my computer monitor as they laugh in derision about something I care nothing about or even loathe. If I could have Vicki, Yogin, Shayne, Jen, Kathleen, Kristina, Royston, Andy, Robin, or even just one of those people at layout, the amount of happiness in my day would soar exponentially. At least I have Sarah now.
So the moral of the story is, friends make life happy.

Blackbird fly into the light of the dark black night...

One of my favourite things to do nowadays, one of the most time-wasting things I do and one of the saddest things I do actually, is looking at old photographs. I look at all the idiotic photos Kathleen and I took through France and England and I think of all the memories and of how carefree and happy we were and how within two months, everything could change. I basically haven't seen her since that trip and it's just very hard to keep my feet on the ground when so much is going on, like life is this hurricane whose goal is to carry me away from where I want to be.