When I first joined the fraternity, one of the first guys I got to be friends with was Robinson. We had two classes together, and he lived at the frat house, so I’d go over there and kill time between classes. He was a really smart guy, he got a 34 on his ACT, brightflight, full ride into college. He was well read, extremely intelligent on many subjects, could talk Plato, Socrates, and Shakespeare, and could hold his own in any conversation, be it cars, audio, or politics. I wouldn’t hesitate to say he was a modern day genius.
Aaron slowly grew more and more distant, though, dropping one of the classes we had together, smoking weed more often, and hanging out with some of the other guys from the ‘fringes’ of the frat.
One day he quit his job suddenly. Instead of going on break, he just quit. We also had to kick him out of the frat house, because he hadn’t paid his dues in months, nor his rent. He moved in with some guys and dropped out of college altogether. He started smoking weed constantly, supplemented by a daily dose of X and maybe a hit of acid.
He began bumming rides across the country to make it to raves, and spending all his time either on pills, X, or acid, and selling weed to friends for cash. I saw him less and less, and he made less and less sense when we talked. The more drugs he did, the harder it was for him to discuss the things he used to be completely literate about. He just couldn’t remember anything he used to know.
He hopped a train yesterday to Chicago to live with some ravers he knows up there, to spend all his time dropping acid, smoking, doing pills, and raving on X, and selling to make ends meet.
I hope he has a good life, although I think it will be short. I suppose the life he had just didn’t have enough to offer him. Maybe there’s a point where one can be so smart that life unaltered just isn’t enough.
To all out there who are big on the drug culture: Please, use some self control. Don’t let it get out of hand.
–Tim