On The Dangers of Social Media

I think it's pretty obvious where this is going.

This blogpost is just a bit of therapy for me, and somewhat of an apology to the people I reached out to during my Great Meltdown Of The Night Of May 20, as it will henceforth be called. Don't read too much into it, and unless you really want to, you can pretty much stop reading altogether. There will be a Belgium recap in a few days' time anyway. Again, this is part therapy and part reaching-out to a handful of people.

I honestly don't know what happened. Perhaps it was the combination of a lack of sleep and a glass of wine too many, or the fact that so much I had been meaning to say for so long finally came out, and it came out wrong. Maybe it was the supercut of Friday Night Lights speeches that ran in the background (Matt's shower scene seriously got to me), or maybe it was all of this combined with the fact I was finally home again. At some point, the tears started to come and I just couldn't stop it. I cried like a little girl for hours, and it was truly embarrassing.

I reached out on Twitter to a few of you because I just needed to talk. I needed a hug and for someone to tell me everything would be okay most of all, but at that point a talk would do. The response I got from a few (actually, quite a lot) of you was truly heart-warming, and I can't thank you enough for it. You were right, we're all allowed to feel like that on occasion. As embarrassed as I was, sometimes we just need a hand. It was incredibly helpful (more than Matt screaming everybody just leaves) and I actually don't regret reaching out the way I did because of it. I was raised to believe this world is a cold and dark place, and the last 25 years have only affirmed those teachings. It's what makes those handful of warm gestures stand out even more. The pains of everyday life are the reason we can appreciate what we do have. After all, there's a reason hope was all that remained in Pandora's box.

I woke up early this morning (I hardly slept anyway) and went for a long run ahead of my morning workout. Somehow I felt changed, and maybe the misery of last night was needed in order to achieve some kind of progress. I don't know. I just feel different today. After breakfast I went on another walk and I took my camera with me, and you can expect those photos to go online when I get back to London. I'm not a selfie-guy (I prefer to enjoy the moments instead of destroying them by pulling out a camera) but I would like to share my home with you, and the places I have come to love most.

In a few hours I'll be seeing my mum and the rest of my siblings before I travel to Leuven to see my friends again, finally. I'm sure we'll find a way to keep my mind occupied.

A lot of things raced through my mind this morning, and I'm sure that I could type down quite the essay at this point. I could talk about hardship and the choices we make, but in the end it would all sound like a generic motivational poster, or the voice-over before the credits roll at the end of some silly movie.

It wouldn't matter, because we are all unique in so many ways. I am a drama queen, a vessel of emotions waiting to burst into flames, and on some level, that's okay. It's a part of who I am. I could write you words of wisdom (aka generic crap) and they simply wouldn't register, because we all face life in a different way. But we don't have to do it on our own, and sometimes that's something we forget.

I love you all dearly, and I'm happy to be surrounded by friends and family right now. I'm not sure what's going to come next, but maybe that's the point.

Thanks Twitter. Let me leave you with several Songs of the Day, as a thank you. And because I simply couldn't choose.


Bing Crosby - Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2z68bUk_M0c
Dashboard Confessional - The Places We Have Come to Fear the Most
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVt_FInqklU
This Will Destroy You - The Mighty Rio Grande
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbszJJr9I9U