Here I respond to a prompt: "write a letter to someone you knew about…". Okay, it was a while ago, I don't remember the actual prompt. Haha haha. This isn't starting out well :)
Hey man,
It's been ages, I know. We haven't talked in so long, and I mostly blame myself. I haven't put in the effort. I'm sorry. We haven't really connected since just after high school. Remember all the fun we used to have?
High school was a weird time. In retrospect, every period of my life before the current period I'm in seems weird. Why did I care so much about such unnecessary things? I think how humans' priorities change over time is something that needs to be studied in more depth. One year you are convinced if you do not get a pair of shoes for your Christmas party, the world is going to end. The next year, you are stressing over your GPA and realising that simple mistakes can ruin your life properly. Now, you are making sure you budget well enough to pay your rent and thinking about your career decisions every day of your life. 0 to 100, no?
Anyway, how are you doing? I haven't talked to you in years. The last I heard, you were studying Mechanical Engineering at OAU. Typical you, you had to pick a hard engineering course to study at some popular federal university. I could never understand how it worked. To be a popular kid, but also be smart. I felt like one had to pick a struggle. You didn't. You managed to finesse the art of navigating both worlds.
The thing that I appreciated the most about you was how well you played football. I remember watching you on the field after one of our exams. I kept thinking, "damn, why can't I play this good?". It was more admiration than jealousy really. I admired you. That sounds creepy but wait, hear me out. I don't think I really feel jealousy. Most times, I just feel inspired and somewhat appreciative.
I don't think I'd have ever wanted to play football the way you did. I was comfortable on the sidelines. I wish I could say the same for some other things. I wish I was comfortable being on the sidelines for some other ambitions. Life would be much simpler. Imagine if we were all comfortable being on the sidelines. True, nothing remarkable would happen, but nothing devastating would happen too. That might be a worthy compromise. Who knows?
I'm happy you've always decided to be the player though. To be remarkable. Not just in sports, but in all the other things. The nature of our friendship was never really to discuss deep things. I wish it was. That way I'd have known if you really enjoyed being this person: always reaching, always over-achieving. It feels exhausting to me, but I'm lazy, so everything feels exhausting to me. I think sometimes people want to be lazy too, but they can't be. When I look at some celebrities give interviews, or talk on social media, sometimes I can tell that they are tired. Even when they don't say so, I can tell from their eyes and subtexts (Sherlock who?). It must hurt to be so "on" all the time, and not be able to turn it off. If (read "when") you write back, tell me how it is. Do you enjoy being remarkable?
I'm sure your new friends (and colleagues) are as proud of you as your old ones were. I'm curious though, are you still the best at everything? Are you still a beast at football? Do you even still play?