It used to be that we were all concerned about the happiness of each other, of every single individual. We devoted ourselves to the needs of those who were dear to us, and made a true effort to brighten the days of those we didn’t even know with a simple smile, a few words of kind greeting. We all felt that we were at the height of our lives. It never entered our minds that there was a remote possibility of it all crashing down, and yet, later on, as some of us decided this life wasn’t good enough and wanted something even higher, the rest of us were left in the dust. They wanted to be at the top rung, spending all of their time fighting for their desired position and, if they got it, struggling to maintain it for as long as they could before they were pushed off of the narrow column. No one had known what it meant to be caught up in that _(insert relevant word here)_, and now, there was no escaping it. For those of us that had never gone there in the first place, we were dazed, confused, choking on the rising tension in what used to be such a harmonic community. Friendships I’d had were torn apart, the charred remains nothing but solemn reminders of the past. I wandered, blind, wishing that someday I’d find a path, but not hopeful enough to ever search for one. Trying to recall any bit of the way things used to be would just make the way we lived now innumerably worse. And when I thought that I had nothing else to go on for, I saw the candle in the distance. As it drew nearer, I realized that the identity was unmistakable, and yet I didn’t want to get my hopes up- how could it be, that the one person I had never expected to speak to again had left the frenzy of people on the column and was coming back? And we were both outcasts, we ran away, far away from everyone else, and together we were able to rise above that rubble, that smoke and confusion and sadness. You had followed what you thought was the right path, and then you realized where you belonged, and you came to me, and now we both know, this is the way it’s supposed to be. There may not be many other who understand as we do, but we are taking what we have for all it’s worth, and we can only hope that someday, miraculously, there will be more of us who have found what we have. It used to be that we were all concerned about the happiness of each other, of every single individual. If only now, every single individual could learn to truly care about themselves.