my trip back home and our point of no return

I have wanted to write about several things that have been on my mind for awhile, but only now as I'm scurrying to review my biology material that I will never more than memorize for tomorrow do I find the time to sit down and type out a new entry.

First, I went home this weekend to Pittsburgh for the second time this semester(the other being for the Super Bowl). I hadn't planned on coming home more than once before spring break, but the Super Bowl is an extenuating circumstance and this last weekend was more to see friends and get away from State College. After a night out on Friday and a dinner with a good friend on Saturday, I realized how much I missed the place. I miss it for a few reasons. First, the people in Pittsburgh are different than people up here. PSU is a melting pot for people from Maryland, Pittsburgh, Philly, New Jersey, New York, and everywhere in between. And the supposed "we think we're better than you" chain seems to run from east to west until it stops in State College, PA. Everywhere you go up here you get this incredibly annoying sense of unbridled arrogance when you tell people that you're from Pittsburgh. Their first thoughts are, people from Pittsburgh are obviously less intelligent than I am. I mean, come on, I was born in New York/New Jersey/Philadelphia, so it is in my DNA that I am smarter, funnier, and most importantly, cooler than them. It isn't until you leave your general metropolitain area that you realize that their are varied attitudes towards life. Growing up there were always kids from certain neighborhoods that would look down on you because they had more money, but never before did I meet people from a geographic region that all thought they were actually inherently better than me. Personally, I feel that confidence is one of the most important traits you can have or acquire. You have to think that you're good at what you do or you'll never convince others of it; but when confidence spills over into arrogance, I think that your head begins getting too inflated for your own good and eventually you will be knocked back down into reality with the rest of us. Okay, enough about that. I was actually just trying to say that I had a really good time in Pittsburgh hanging out with people whose company I greatly enjoy. So enough said.

Next, I would like to address another issue that I have been dealing with recently. Not too long ago, I wrote a post about several really good friends I have met up here. As a matter of fact, the four of us used to hang out all the time for all of last semester and a portion of this semester. Then, something happened. Something that I will not discuss here, but rest assured, really isn't that big of a deal given the context of other things that could have happened. It really just boiled down to a comment that was made that should not have been and one that was apologized for several times over. However, that could have been the end of it, but a certain person allowed the situation to escalate, and took steps to worsen the original commentor's time out with the group and other friends in general. Now, we have reached or almost reached a point of no return which never had to be reached. All could have been resolved easily, and we could have all gone back to being just friends, but that seems highly unlikely at this point. I guess that's the thing about a group of friends that is reliant as much on relationships instead of friendships. When one portion of the group fails, it goes back to being individual friendships instead of having fun with the group. That's all for now.

Until next time,

mh