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Some people are lucky and have good role models around them growing up. Others grow up

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with walking, talking illustrations of what kind of human not to be when you grow up.

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I had the latter kind for parents, and don't get me wrong. I loved them. They were my

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mom and dad, but the truth is, they just weren't good parents.

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When I was 14, we lived in a mobile home park a couple miles outside of the center of

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Calcutta, Ohio. Given my parents' preference to drink and use other substances, I was

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usually left unsupervised, which believed me as a teenager I was okay with. I had become

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rather resourceful and self-sufficient in my time as their son, so it suited me just

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fine. Now, whereas most teens would probably use that unsupervised time to get into some

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trouble, I didn't. I spent my time wandering the wooded land behind the mobile home park,

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or walking through it and on down to little beaver creek to do a little fishing. With

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all the chaos inside my home, I found I much preferred being anywhere but there, and

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having no money and no friends, well, that meant that I tended to spend my time in the great

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outdoors whenever I could.

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I had gotten pretty comfortable with the wooded area behind us in the time since we'd

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moved there. Now, as an adult, I am certain I was probably trespassing on someone's land,

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but I had no notion of that at the age of 14. I had a few particular favorite spots

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deep in those woods, but my favorite was the improvised tree stands someone had built.

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It was primitive and built from lots of mismatched scrap wood. The latter up to the platform

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consisted of two vertical boards with horizontal slats nailed to them. Now, the platform itself

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was roughly two feet square, really just enough to sit or stand on, and it was strengthened

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with bracing pieces of wood underneath connecting to the tree. And there was something that was

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supposed to resemble a railing that ran around the edges.

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As an adult who has now learned to hunt, I now know that the tree stand was much lower

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than was probably useful. I would guess it was maybe twelve feet off the ground, and

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maybe that's why it had been abandoned. Anyway, it was toward the end of June, and the

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fighting at home was heating up. It usually did by the third week or so of the month when

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the money they got from the beginning of the month started to run out. They were like

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animals that turned on each other when resources got low. They would start bickering over who

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drank up all the beer or who smoked up all the cigarettes. I had come to understand

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the correlation between the calendar and their fights when I was still pretty young,

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and I had begun to prepare for them the best that I could, and I kept a small backpack

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with a few things rolled away in it for day trips out of the house ready to go at any time.

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Well, as much as I could with my limited means anyway.

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So when the fighting did begin that afternoon, I quietly picked up my backpack and headed

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out the back door, leaving the chaos behind and headed out into the woods and my little

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perch. Climbing up and sitting on the small platform, I relaxed and watched the colors

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in the sky change as the sun began to sing low. It was peaceful and quiet. I got a can of

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ravioli, my can opener, my spoon, and a bag of fritos out of my backpack and had my dinner

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with just the quiet of the forest around me and the brilliant colors above the trees. It

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was wonderful. After eating, I put the bag of fritos in the empty can of ravioli back in

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a little white grocery sack, tied up the ends, and put all of that back in my backpack,

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which I then fastened around the makeshift wood railing so it wouldn't fall.

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The sun had now been down for hours and I knew it was getting late, and while experience

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had also taught me that my parents had probably found a way to get some more booze in cigarettes,

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or were probably already passed out, but I wasn't ready to go home yet. I had leaned back

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against the tree and my legs and feet were dangling over the edge of the wooden platform as

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I watched the starry sky above me. It was beautiful and again I was peaceful and I felt so relaxed

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and I didn't mean to, but I fell asleep.

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Now the next thing I know, my dad was tugging on my foot to get me up for school and I kind

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of came to a half-wakeful state. I think I mumbled to him that I was already awake, go away,

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leave me alone. The tugging stopped.

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For a fraction of a second I felt myself falling back to sleep when my subconscious mind began

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ringing loud, clocks and alerts screaming at me that I wasn't at home in my bed and

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that it was not my dad tugging on my foot. My eyes popped open to inky-blackness all around

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me.

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Now fully wide awake, I reflexively jerked my legs back up onto the platform, pulling

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my knees close to my chest. I tried to calm my hard breathing so I could listen, and unmistakably,

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I did hear movement directly under me.

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I replayed the moment in my head of something tugging on my foot, and I thought maybe it

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was a bear that had reached up and was swatting my foot.

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But no, it was a hand wrapped around my foot tugging. It was on a slap, and I hadn't felt

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any claws, and black bears can't reach this high, can they?

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I was thinking about all of that as my eyes were adjusting to the darkness.

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I couldn't see clearly, but I couldn't make out movement in the darkness below.

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Chancing it, I reached into my still half unzipped backpack hanging on the rail, and felt around

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until I found the small flashlight.

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I shifted up to a kneeling position, took a deep breath, and cautiously leaned over, peering

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off the edge of the platform, and flipped on my flashlight.

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Now I didn't understand what I was seeing for maybe a half second or so.

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Below me illuminated in the small spread of the weak yellow light from my small flashlight

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was something large and covered in fur and very tall.

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At first I did think it was a bear standing on its back legs maybe.

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Maybe because that's what I was expecting to see.

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I was looking down directly on top of its head, which was only a few feet below the platform.

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The fur was dark and brown in the light.

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Quickly it looked up at me, and then I knew it was not a bear.

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There were no ears, no snout, but it had a wide face with dark eyes that glinted in my

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flashlight.

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It made a grunting noise and looked away from the light quickly.

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I scrambled backwards, bewildered, and then suddenly I felt a thump on the right side of

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the platform.

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I turned my flashlight in that direction, and I saw a long arm reaching up, trying to

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go over the thin railing on that side of the platform.

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Terrified I shamed up to a standing position and tried to make myself flatter against the

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tree as I shrank to the far edge as much as I could safely go.

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Which wasn't far.

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Watching the arm reaching up to feel around in the air, I had a ridiculous image of my head

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of myself reaching blindly over the shelf in the top of my closet, not too long ago.

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Looking for the shoe box I had hidden some things from my parents in.

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Now I couldn't see up there with no light in the closet.

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I was just blindly groping around in the darkness, searching by feel.

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That.

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That's what it looked like with that arm in the air reaching up.

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Anyway, that's the thought that came into my head.

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And you know, even as frightened as I was, I realized there wasn't any force in the arm.

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And by that I mean something that size could have easily broken the small pieces of the

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wood railing like tiny matchsticks, but it didn't.

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It was searching.

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And I realized suddenly that there was a harsh, barking noise in my ears.

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And then I realized it was me making that noise.

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I couldn't stay quiet.

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My breathing was combining with some noise that I was making, I guess, out of fear.

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I remember slapping a hand over my mouth, trying to stay quiet.

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But even then, I could still hear my own muffled sound under my hand.

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I kept thinking, "If I'm quiet, it won't hear me, right?

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It will go away."

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And briefly it did.

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It went away.

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I saw the arm disappear from that side of the tree stand.

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I was shining my light all around in the darkness.

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When I felt a tug on the railing that I was leaning against.

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Quickly I pressed back against the tree and pointed my flashlight in that direction, just

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in time to see the little thin railing give way and my backpack that had been hanging on

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it disappear below.

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I was almost hyperventilating at this point, I think.

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I expected to feel the entire platform give way any second, or see a hand reach out and

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grab my foot and pull me down.

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The seconds went by and that didn't happen.

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I waited.

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And I tried to listen, but all I could hear at first was my own erratic heartbeat and rough

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breathing.

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And then, then I heard something that I recognized.

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I heard what sounded like fabric ripping, and then I heard the sound of things smacking leaves.

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And then, I heard the sound of plastic crinkling.

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Tentatively I leaned forward and flashed my light below.

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A few feet to the side of the tree stood the creature.

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My backpack lay at its feet like a deflated football, and I caught sight of a few of my

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items thrown about.

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I watched as the creature turned the grocery shopping bag over and over in its hands.

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A few times it brought it close to its face and I think it was sniffing it.

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But it seemed puzzled how to get into the bag, which seemed odd to me since it had

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no problem ripping the backpack apart.

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Out.

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I watched as it put the tight ends of the grocery bag in its mouth, maybe giving one or two

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tentative chews and then pulled it right back out.

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In a few moments though, it did figure out how to tear into the slippery plastic bag.

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And I watched as it figured out how to unroll the top of the fritos bag, and then dump them

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on the ground.

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It then squatted and began picking up the fritos and eating them, dirt and all.

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Now once before the weak batteries gave out in my flashlight, it looked back up at me as

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I peered over from the side of the wood platform.

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It looked at me for a half second or so before returning to picking up fritos from the dirt

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and eating them.

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I would like to add so that everyone knows that Bigfoot has really bad manners and eats

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with his mouth open.

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Now satisfied he had gotten whatever there was to eat, I watched as he threw everything

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down and after me andering about for a bit slowly moved away and out of sight of my light.

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All of this experience had only taken a few minutes, but to me it felt like an eternity.

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Many ten minutes or so after the Bigfoot had walked out of my sight, the batteries in my

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flashlight finally gave out, leaving me in darkness with only the stars above.

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I sat on the platform with my knees drawn up tight, waiting for dawn.

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Now I had plenty of time to think during those dark hours until dawn about what had happened,

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and I knew a few things for certain.

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It's notably being that if it had wanted me out of that stand, it could have done so easily

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and quickly.

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I also thought about how it didn't seem very interested in me and that the real interest

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had only been in my fritos.

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With the sun now coming up strong, I surveyed the area as much as I could and then slowly

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made my descent onto the forest floor.

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I left the torn backpack and all my things lying around before cautiously making my way home.

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Now when I walked in, I saw that my parents were passed out in the living room.

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Nearby were fresh bottles and full ash trays.

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I stood there and realized they hadn't even noticed that I had been gone all night.

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Later, while taking a shower, I had another realization that broke my heart.

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That if something had happened to me out there, no one would have known and no one would

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have came looking for me because they hadn't even known I was gone.

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Now I made myself two promises right there as I stood crying and naked in the shower that

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was covered in soaps gum and mildew.

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First, from that point forward, I was going to be much more careful about the circumstances

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in which I put myself into in the future.

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And secondly, that I would be a better parent than my parents were when I had children.

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I'm 39 now and I know that I have kept the first promise.

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And according to my children, I have kept the second one too.

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[BLANK_AUDIO]