Boys.

Nope, not little 10 year old crybabies who want their mommies to buy them new toys, but boys ranging from the teenage years and up. The angsty type of boys. The ones who despite being of a mature age still act like children. The kinds of children who moan and whine about trivial things. The ones who push their OWN problems onto OTHERS. The ones who blame their problems on everyone but themselves.

I'm not going to waste your time with a detailed write up about my own sorrowful and lonesome childhood. I'm only going to say that I was forced to grow up really fast. By the time I was 12 years old I was already a smart and responsible person. Despite my gloomy childhood and lonely teenage years, I never pushed my angst, real or false, onto anyone. I knew that whatever mistakes *I* made were MY mistakes, and no one else's.

What gets under my skin are these 15 and 16 year old children who do deplorable things and then blame everyone but themselves when the consequences come back and thwap them in the face like a razor lined boomerang. Seventeen year olds who sit at home and blare Linkin Park and break their $4000 stereo system because daddykins wouldn't send them away to Hawaii during Christmas break. The spoiled brats who want even MORE than they already have. Or the immature little boys who angst and guilt at their ex girlfriends because they still love and want them back despite making them hurt mentally and physically. The little children who break the law because they can get away with it because the law is easier on young people.

Where did this "angst explosion" come from? I honestly never once heard the word till a half-year ago when I finally got the Internet. Yes, children can be unruly. Yes, it's a normal thing. Children rebelling is a very natural part of growing up. But it seems like it's almost cool to be a whiny little crybaby these days. And they have this seemingly... Greedy little impulse to push their problems, which are often very small, but are treated by them as world shattering, onto the nearest target. They bitch to the nearest person about their problems, until the person can't take it. People complain to me all the time about their problems, and I tell them to suck it up. Little boys whine about their problems, while MEN take their problems and change them. Men take their problems and crush them under their heel as they steadily tread down the road to what they want. The path that they have chosen in their life.

I am a man. I took all of my problems and destroyed them. A few of them still have some fight in them, but I have decided what I want. I am going to do what I want to in my life, because I have the power to live on. To fight on and battle against whatever beasts life sends my way. I have a destination. A beautiful angel awaits me at the end of this dark road. A pathway that is entangled by gnarled thorns and haunted by evil ghosts. No wolf will stand in my way. No dark starless sky will lead me to confusion and despair. No evil phantasm will possess me and force me away from what I want. I am going to FIGHT for my angel. The girl I love, who lives so far away. And I will let NOTHING, no poison thorn, no road to Hell, no ravenous wolf tell me any different. I want something that I will have to work for, to fight for, to live for. And I am NOT going to whine about how hard it is going to be to finally reach safety under my angel's wonderful shining wing. I am going to work for it, because I want this and it is MY responsibility to make my dreams come true. And soon I SHALL awaken and realize that what I want is no longer a dream.

I am proud to be a man and not a boy.*

*"Direct the e-mails to Losfer, not us." - Ed