What the question "How are you?" actually means:

• Please lie to me I don’t want to deal with your shit
• Please tell the truth so I can give you pointless advice
• Please change the subject because I don’t know what to talk about
• That awkward moment you know you need to be a little drunker before you get any
• Hurry up and answer so I can tell you about my problems
• I am polite. Did you see that? I am polite. That makes me so cool. Now I can ignore you.
• I just said these words automatically because they always go after “hello” and I just said that but OH CRAP WHAT’S GOING TO HAPPEN NEXT SOMEONE HAND ME A SCRIPT OR SOMETHING

I think it’s sad how many ways there are to lose someone. We obsess over the major one; death, but life often seems like an endless chain of gaining loved ones for such a brief time and losing them so much more quickly.

People leave. For such simple reasons. They’ve found someone else, you weren’t what they wanted anymore, or they just decided to. They very rarely come back. And I often find I’m left wondering what could have happened if I did more with the time I had with them. In the end, I conclude I probably couldn’t have done much…I mean, if they left then they probably didn’t feel very strongly for me in the beginning. And that leaves me searching for someone who does.