Starting Over – Chapter 08

I’m not really sure where to begin . Every little thing ended up different .
I mean it, I really couldn’t tell you . If you compared the two and asked me “Where were they different?”, I wouldn’t know how to answer .
You need to have some common points to compare and contrast . You can’t just ask someone to explain the differences between a merry-go-round and a pencil, right?
But in a word, I was ruined . Far worse off than one would ever imagine given my first life .
To give a few examples, let’s see . I was bullied by my best friend from my first life, I was severely rejected by my girlfriend from my first life, and I failed the exam for the high school I attended in my first life… and so on .
I bet you’re dying to know what change in my heart or whatever brought on such corruption . But I don’t want to talk about that, at least not right now .
Basically, I’m not the type to moan about his worries .
Anybody who enjoys hearing that stuff’s gotta be someone who love strangers’ sorrows better than three square meals, some real rubbernecking gossiper types .
And this story’s not for them . So let’s just summarize the interesting bits .
I guess I’ll put it like this . In my second go at life, a vicious cycle had created itself seemingly out of thin air .
One bit of misfortune led to another bit of misfortune, and that led to a third . As soon as there was a tiny misalignment in the cogs, all these other ones got mucked up, and those ones mucked up even more…
And in the end, the cogs had all come apart . I think that’s a good way to explain what happened .
It was a friend of mine who put it that way first, though .
I was always a guy who could “fall either way,” so to speak . I had the potential for great success, but I also had the potential for massive failure . The more I think about it, I realize that’s hardly something exclusive to me .