Welcome to Sodom, South Georgia, where we wake like a tree full of bees.

So, okay, remember when I posted my Selfish Manifesto? (The red, underlined text, means "Click here to jog your memory.) Well, JP wrote and performed his speech about me, using that as a template, right? Well, he gave me his speech, and every fucking manifestation of it, so I'm going to post that because I really think he hit it on the nose as to who I am.

"The back of the classroom knows him well, the scruff haired, awkwardly outging, turtured soul of a teenager whom [sic] feels without boundaries, searches for answers, and who is known by all, but is Known by few. Evan Pugh.

"The Bipolar child whom [sic] thinks he is a man, says what others think, and also what they never wanted to think of...he is blunt with too much edge, people [k]now him as the crass intellectual who oddly enough has horrible grades. He is Evan Pugh

"Born into a Christian househole, he has been told not to swear, not to fight, not to be who he inevitably changes into around other people. He is eternally positive, believing everything will be solved by God in the end, some might call this a fairy tale, he just finds the hope depressing every time something else gets in his way. He can't help but be Evan Pugh.

"Those who have met him never forget him, off the walls and with too much energy, speaking in almost never ending phrases of quotations and obscure references to films only buffs would watch and music only the confused could find. He talks like Evan Pugh.

I will never forget Evan Pugh because he is the one person who although did not graduate top of his class, or have any friends, is too nice for his own good, often coming off as the boy who tries too hard for the girl, and a dynamic moment breaker, with a mind with a peculiar gift for dictation, and a sense of humor and wit too sharp for many. But as Emerson wrote, "To be Genius is to be Misunderstood." And nobody is more misunderstood during a million mile per hour half angry all passion rant on some mundane item than the angry whining voice of Evan Pugh.

"As far as unforgettable goes, Evan is for me. And although some may forget him, or only know him as Evan Pugh the most outgoing, friendless, good guy who have gone to school with the at some point in time; I remember him for the all the times he developed my half formed ideas and unsure beliefs, while I simplified his half baked ridiculous self made philosophies and beliefs. He is memorable to me, and Like Evan would like me to say

" 'We must be humble, we mustn't demand recognition. I was raised to do good whilst flying under the radar--create the tireless chugging ideology of goodness without recognition because being known destroys everything. Be without megalomania. Know yourself, know your God, may it be enough for enlightenment.

" 'Believe in God. The universe tends to unfold as it should.' "

Here's a part that I really like, that sums up the beginning of our friendship, that he left out of the speech (I think. His speech was more a conglomoration of above and his ten pages of hand written scribble-notes).

"Lasting memories are left by his perfect friendship,
"First as a minor acquaintance, a minor annoyance,
"a minor creep, a major influence,
"A Gift."

Yea, I will admit, it was creepy the way I'd wait around for his Spanish class to end so I could give him a ride home even though I didn't have a fifth period. He swears I wasn't dating my current girlfriend Kaitlyn while I did this, but I swear that I was. Whatever, it all worked out in the end. I knew I had found a super-major-kick-ass friend when we would ride home listening to Radio Free Vietnam, laughing about how it all sounded like gibberish, and he wasn't creeped out about it. I'm gonna send him a message, for him to write his own selfish Manifesto, so I can respond to it and do the same thing.

This reaffirmed that, in the most non-queer way, even if I don't find love, I'll always have JP--in that Stand by Me, narrated-by-Richard-Dreyfus-looking-for-a-dead-body way. He will be the best man at my wedding. I love him (in the most non-queer way, of course.)