I haven’t seen Pat in more than two months. We’re try­ing to sched­ule some­thing for March, and by that time it’ll be an entire quar­ter year since we’ve hung out. I’ve come a long way since I last saw him, in terms of mind­set, and he’s prob­a­bly the only one who total­ly under­stands how grave­ly impor­tant that is to me. It’s too bad that my oth­er close friends don’t com­plete­ly under­stand me, although it’s no fault of their own and I don’t hold it against them.

It takes pain to under­stand pain, and Pat is the one who’s had the most sim­i­lar expe­ri­ences. If there was one per­son in this world who has me fig­ured out, it’s him. It used to feel as though he would have to come to my lev­el to talk to me, to under­stand what I was going through, to give me guid­ance and sup­port.

Now it feels as if I’ve come to his lev­el, and I under­stand his atti­tude, moti­va­tions, and world­view much bet­ter as a result of this. He admit­ted that he always won­dered when I’d get there, and he’s curi­ous if he’ll notice a change the next time he sees me.

I see all the influ­ences that change me as adding more to my mind, anoth­er piece to the quilt.

Keeping every piece becomes as impor­tant as gain­ing more.