I don't know if this even counts as a confession, it's not really a big deal I guess, but it's something that just keeps nagging at me, especially late at night like this. I was thinking about someone the other day, someone I used to know really well, like back when we were kids. And it just made me feel… I don't know. Like I missed something important. Or maybe *I* was the one who missed something important, I guess. It’s hard to explain, but you know how when you're young, you just assume everyone will always be around? Like you make plans, even if they’re just silly plans for the next week, and you don’t really think about how things change. I certainly didn't. I was always off in my own head, painting or drawing or just dreaming about making art, and I didn't pay much attention to the everyday stuff. Maybe that was it. It's not like I meant to lose touch, not really. We all went our separate ways after high school, like everyone does, to different colleges and cities and all that. And I was so focused on… well, on trying to make it, trying to prove that this art thing wasn't just a phase, that I didn't really put in the effort, I guess. I'd get the occasional message, or see something online, but I never really *replied*. Not properly. I was always so busy struggling, you know? With the money part of it, and just trying to keep my head above water, and sometimes I felt like if I talked to them, they wouldn't understand. They had all these stable jobs, and houses, and I was still scraping by, still trying to make a living off of something that felt so… impractical to everyone else. So I just kind of let it go. And now it’s been YEARS. Like, decades. And now I look back, and I just think about how much I missed. How much of *their* lives I missed, and how much of *my* life they missed because I was too proud, or too busy, or too ashamed, I don't even know what it was. It just feels like a big, quiet hole. Like there's this whole other version of me, or a whole other story, that just… fizzled out. And it's my fault. I don't know if they even remember me anymore. And I don't know if it’s too late to even try to fix it, or if it's even worth it. It probably isn't. But it’s a heavy feeling, knowing you just… let something important slip away.