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I've never ventured down the Friend Path, what with Soldier Boy filling the ChildHood SurfaceWalker Role, part of the Elite Silenced Corp. There are fellow survivors but no friends. It takes Masking Master skills to maintain the strained silence of repressed experience.
I hung with two teenagers at that age, but still, they weren't friends. More like colleagues, even though hanging out wasn't a job. I burst the childhood seams at a young adult stage, casting aside repressive habits, or so I thought with my courtship ways and writing prowess. Fifteen years in, a fissure appeared, revealing the Inner Realm, a gawping portal into dark hallways of triggering smell and sound. I had no one to share with because I had no friends, only followers and sketchy collaborators.
After bombing out of marriage, coming away with less than ever due to Marriage Isolation, I regrouped and launched a business blending Inner.
Trek techniques, fitness, and boxing: a surge of connection between Colleagues, Collaborators, and Training Trekkers ensued, carrying me to the Retirement Border and stepping to the Other Side.
My first Community Collaboration Project was through a local nonprofit supporting families in times of hardship. Their primary motto is, make Friends With Yourself. I thumbtacked the slogan on my Mental Command Center corkboard and opened the…
