My diploma was living to tell about it. — One of the reasons I started writing, was because I’ve always believed my upbringing and early life, were unique and interesting if nothing else. In my twenties, I thought it was the stories I had lived through and acquired throughout my short life that I had to offer the writing…

I’ll try to keep this as least sad as possible, while still saying what I need to. — I don’t even have a lucid conscious memory of ordering it but very soon after my best friend of over two decades passed away tragically and suddenly from an overdose on March 25th, 2021, I ordered a 12 by 16-inch canvas photo of the last picture we ever took together…

Consider it a therapeutic open letter of sorts — you wanted feelings, here ya are. — “Dear Slim, I wrote you but you still ain’t calling. I Left my pager, cell, and home phone at the bottom. …

Find a way to pay us more, and help us earn more, we’ve earned it, you have it, we bring it in for you and fork it over to you without say and willingly through premium membership fees. — I’ve been writing here on Medium regularly since 2016 if I recall correctly. I’ve written here so much It’d take me forever to scroll back to my early posts, given both the page and app layout. That’s not a criticism, just a fact.

And a hesitant but brief semi-defense of the notoriously least loved previous season 3 of one of the most remarkable series ever, IMO. — Rewatches are one of my favorite things if it’s a movie, series, documentary, or comedy special worth watching. I love not only seeing it with fresh eyes but a fresh perspective as well. Hopefully, a wiser mind as well, not just an older one. So I’ve recently (at times, admittedly…

You may not always realize it at the time, it may take years for you to acknowledge you did, or you may live in denial the rest of your life, but it’s always there in plain sight for us to see if we’re able and willing, then or in our own time. — “She once believed, in every story he had to tell, one day she stiffened — took the other side. Empty stares, from each corner of their shared prison cell. One just escapes, one’s left inside the well”. — Pearl Jam

A list of last wishes, hopes, and final requests to my loved ones, should I ever end up going before my time. — For starters, don’t mourn me. If you must cry and grieve for me as I understand (and honestly part of me kind of hopes the basics like my parents do) some of you may need to, for you — don’t do so for me. And do it in general, for…

Being it’s not optional, you might as well try to be the best person you can, or at least be working towards such for your own sake — I mean honestly, who wants to bring an asshole everywhere, for the rest of their lives? — Generally speaking, I like my own company. I’m okay alone. I enjoy time to myself. In fact, it could be said I not only often prefer it, but at times I downright require it. After too much peopling or long periods of being overly social or exposed to large amounts…

Sometimes, quite literally — other times, in more subtle ways — but they’re always there for us if we’re open and willing to see them for what they are and able to properly read them and use them to guide us. — I don’t know if I’d call it God, a higher power, The Universe, synchronicity, a string of bizarre and almost impossible coincidences, or a perfect storm of all of the above. Still, last January when I left rehab, with 30 days with not a single substance or narcotic in my…