Lessons Learned Through Other People Mistakes.

I had this friend growing up, let's call him Phil, and Phil taught me a lot about life. We were at one point good friends, though Phil was never particularly nice to me; he was never really nice to anyone actually. He was one of those kids who always did stupid things at the expense of other people, and it was really funny when it wasn't you.

Once while skateboarding Phil thought it would be really funny to throw my skateboard out in front of passing cars. He thought this was hilarious, he had that look of a toddler playing with his food, utter joy at the mess he was making. Me being the scrawny passive aggressive kid that I used to be, begged him to stop, but really didn't do anything about it. He continued to do this until my older brother showed up and told him he would beat the shit out of him. Good old Sean. He hated Phil, and although I've never seen Sean hit anyone, I'm pretty sure he would have beaten the shit of Phil. Needless to say, Phil was stupid.

There was another time, years later, where Phil's stupidity was again steered in my direction. It was a party at a friends house, by this time Phil was heavily into smoking pot. The end of the night came, everyone passed out, and Phil thought it would be funny to pee in my shoes. He may sound like he was a bully, but that wasn't it; Phil was just really, really dumb. Like just really not smart. You know when people ask if "you were dropped on your head as a child?" Well, those sayings had to come from somewhere, and I really do believe Phil was dropped several times, maybe his father just pushed him down the stairs. So anyway, when I awoke to find my shoes soaking wet with urine, I was furious, and found Phil passed out of the couch downstairs. At this point I wasn't so much the passive kid, I hit Phil repeatedly with a piece of wood. The exercise really did wonders for my hangover. Phil was then thrown out of the house into the pouring rain to wait for his mother to come pick him up, a good 45 minute drive. I feel like it was worth a pair of shoes, they had holes in them anyway.

I think it's pretty reasonable when I say that Phil and I grew apart very quickly. He rarely went to school, and when he did, he had classes for stupid people. He was friends with my friends though, I still heard the stories. He never changed. His pot somking became far worse, and I'm almost certain he didn't graduate highschool, at least not with the rest of our class. I think he got an apartment, partied and yada yada. He really wasted his life to it's fullest potential. Then he turned around, sort of. He tried to "stop smoking pot" and failed. He stopped because he wanted to join the army, he failed because the army said no. This was just a few years ago, deep in the heart of the Iraq war. And the army refused his enlistment. I didn't actually know that was possible.

Because I'm me, and generally think the worst of people, I thought it was really just because Phil was a loser. A loser beyond the help of a drill sergeant. Turns out that's not the whole truth(it must be part of it though). I guess it was because of a good old fashioned head injury that Phil had gotten himself(dropped as a child?). I guess Phil fell off a moving car. I think he was sitting on the tailgate of a pick-up truck, and they hit a bump, and well, you get the idea. Those kind of accidents happen a lot in Maine. Stupidity related accidents. What part of any rational human being thinks it's a good idea to sit on the tailgate of a moving truck? As far as I'm concerned, serves you right. Did you get shot because you were drunk playing with guns? Serves you right.

Stupidity is usually a choice, and well, that's what I learned from Phil: Don't do what he does. I can't say I've done a whole lot with my life, unless you count a year and half of college, and moving to New York. Thats the extent. But what I've taken away from going up with people like this is to think before anything. If it seems like a dumb idea, it probably is. If I think to myself, I might fall off that tailgate if I sit on it while the truck is moving, I'm not going to sit on it. And well, because of that, it is very possible that Phil may have saved my life, in a round about way. Having stupid friends teaches one to be not stupid.