I just reconnected with a friend of mine from the DDR days (2002) on facebook. He's over 10 years older than me (I'm 23). I asked him how he is doing and apparently, he ended up in the boondocks living in a motel with his mom, because the relative that was supporting them died of cancer. Now, I feel terrible about this, but my first reaction was "yeah, I was kind of expecting that." In the years that I knew him, he never worked an honest day in his life. He never went to college, and any retail job he ever had he never lasted more than a few weeks because he would be fired for showing up hours late, or just never showing up at all. I think he was big on clubbing back then, and always had a new girlfriend every time I saw him. He was good looking and that helped him mooch off of more fortunate girls who wanted to be seen with him. I saw him recently at an anime convention, and he was staffing...I thought he had turned over a new leaf. Turns out that he showed up 6 hours late for a morning shift, and probably the only reason he staffed was so he could get a comp'ed hotel room for 4 days so he didn't have to bum around a friend's house anymore.

The ironic thing is, I once got into an argument on a forum back in the day, and I don't know how it came up but I jabbed at him by saying he was 10 years older than me (I was 15 at the time) and never even went to college. I mean, it's not like I had any right to say that, I was still in high school after all. He got way butthurt and insulted my nerdiness and said I would never have a girlfriend because I was a short nerd. Well, things have worked out alright for me...but I can't exactly say the same about him.

But I'm just not sure how I'm supposed to feel about this, which is why I'm venting on GB...he wants help, but I think if he's down to the point where he's living in a motel with his mom, I don't think I can really trust him to "turn over a new leaf." But at the same time, I feel really sorry for him.

Fuck.