You talk a lot about wasted potential. The boy with the genius I.Q. who destroyed his beautiful brain with PCP. The girl with an angelic voice who smoked cigarettes until her voice sounded like grinding gravel. The friendly, smart boy who killed himself because of minor trespassing charges.
You say, “It’s just too bad. They could have really been someone.”
But the truth is, they were somebody. Most people know their gifts. They chose to let their light shine or put it under a dark umbrella. And hell, that’s their choice. They knew what they had, but they didn’t run with it, they jumped.
And next time, while you sit on your new paisley couch, eating generic Cheerios and watching Dancing with the Stars in your dark room, ranting about someone’s wasted potential, maybe you should put a mirror over your God damn TV and say, “I have some good ideas. Maybe I could’ve been the next God damn Gandhi, and all I do is sell carpet.”
And maybe you can say, “It’s just so depressing that they wasted all that potential.”
Or you can say, “Maybe I shouldn’t waste my potential.”
Because the truth is, you can’t change anything about that wasted potential. And b****ing about other people’s faults sure as hell doesn’t make you superior. And if you make no difference at all, then you don’t matter, anyway