The passing of a housemate

An acquaintance of mine died this past Saturday from a likely overdose of drugs. He and I met this past fall semester of school -- my last semester of undergrad -- and I'm extremely bummed at his death. We hung out quite a bit around the house we lived at and sat together in our film class together, meeting up to watch some of the required movies and wisecracking at the extreme idiocies of our egomanical professor (if any of you have had Rob Silberman at University of Minnesota, you know exactly what I mean). Last December I was walking down the street to get dinner and I saw him in the window of a local bar, The Library, with a friend of one of my other close friends, and I stopped in and had a good time drinking it up and laughing at some idiots on TV. It was a blast, and the last real time I hung out with him.

Upon my graduation in December, financial considerations forced me to move home instead of continuing to live at our place of residence, and his presence there was one of the reasons I was excited at the prospect of moving back there. Just a real shame.

It just shows that individuals need to be careful with how they alter their consciousness. There is absolutely nothing wrong or immoral about altering one's consciousness, whether it be alcohol consumption or experimenting in prescriptions, but one must maintain prudence and know their limits. This incident also reminds me, now more than ever, to cherish every moment I have and every moment my friends and family have, lest tomorrow come and one of us leaves like he did.

I didn't know him well enough and it's unfortunate, as we had just met in September of this past year. He was a good man and I'll miss him, and if something else exists out there hopefully he's enjoying it.