Avid, failed car mechanic/comp sci dropout, depression chat

AVID.

Today, I went on depression chat. I was frustrated about a friend’s constant complaints, the overflow of noise in the vicinity of my room, and other minor problems concerning my life. The chatroom promised to be supportive and friendly and was filled with people who had problems. And indeed, as I entered the room, I was greeted with “hi’s” here and there. I felt very much loved.

First it was there was the general chat, but I was never quite a fan of that. Although I did find out, that a lot of the people on depression chat, did have major problems (very major, compared with some people’s). So I quickly started to pm the person who had been most friendly and attentive. This one was Avid.

Avid was a wonderful listener. If listening applied to online messaging. He was attentive, considerate and offered straight-forward, sensible advice. It’s funny to imagine such a guy feeling “depressed”. – I really don’t know why I have this habit of putting apostrophes. In fact, a scene cropped up as soon as I arrived in the chatroom:

So, loopsie, how are you? – SomeOtherGuy

I am “depressed”. * – Me

What’s up with the “”? – SOG

Some like it for the “emphasis”. – Avid

*Personally I thought it was obviously sarcastic?? Given that this was the “depression” chatroom (and obviously labled so on the window), it was the first lame reply I could think of.

But I digress. Avid listened to my girl problems, and gave me a fresh outlook that was not angry or dejected, as you would expect from a “depressed” guy. But he was nice. Told me to think over it again. I didn’t want to “scream” my guts out on skype, kill a friendship just because I couldn’t cope with their whine anymore. “Think of it,” he said, ” as patience testing, a valuable life skill. And anyways, in ten years,  you’ll be laughing about this with your friend”. Ah, how wise. And how different I feel now, calm and I bet I would have regretted it if I did indeed “scream out”.

Now, as for Avid himself, he had bigger problems.

After graduating from a highschool in Texas with midrange grades, he went onto an obscure college for a computer science course. Of course, this was very difficult, but he held on for two years. Eventually, he failed a few times too many and dropped out and in the drain was thousands of dollars worth of fees which his mother’s hard earned hopes and money. So he came back to his hometown, found a low-paying job as a car mechanic and even got back in touch with his old high-school honey. Life was good. The two of them were very much in love and planned to settle down there and churchbells would soon be ringing to the oordinariness of a settled, pleibeian life. It always amazes me how young people in American towns could get married so young, and it reflects, not surprisingly, on a high divorce rate. How old did this guy say he was? 19?

Anyhow, things did not go as they planned. A week (!) before the wedding, he found his fiancée cheating on him with another guy, kissing on a bench in the shopping mall (inconspicuous, much?). Apparently, she was willing to go on with the wedding while clutching the hand of her lover. Her excuse/reason to sway? Apparently, this was what she said upon being asked:

You are a failure, but I love you! You cannot buy me any lavish gifts, so how am I supposed to get spoilt from? I’m still young and pretty. You’ve got to understand that. I’ll always come back for you.

But he didn’t take it. Canceled the wedding, again the money for the preparations all gone. What’s worse, he lost his job as a car mechanic as well, because his ex-father-in-law was his boss. If this continues, he’s not far from moving onto the streets, and other than trying to find just any job he can get, he plays WoW and guild wars online.

Nice guy.

Filed under: Uncategorized, Failure, NaBloPoMo09, Nice guy