[ WP ] Stars have brilliant deaths , large explosions given a beautiful name . Men are granted nothing so glorious .

Tom and Brad were sitting out on the porch, as they used to every summer back in high school. Unfortunately time continued on, as it insisted on doing, and Brad had started law school. Tom's lack of life plans caused a rift between the two, and Brad found it harder and harder to pass the time with someone who saw life in a fundamentally different way. Brad still came back to town to hang out with Tom every summer, but he promised himself that this was the last time he ’ d do this. “ Why keep doing something I hate? ” he figured. “ It ’ s not my fault Tom never grew up. ” 
 
 Brad and Tom did the usual on the day before Brad headed back to school: sit around on the porch, smoking weed and talking about which girls from high school had gotten married or ugly. As the day passed and sunset took, Brad felt compelled to rescue his friend one last time. “ Tom, how come you never went to college? Don ’ t you wan na do something with your life? Like this is cool and all, but what the fuck man? You wan na be the 40 year old single dude who runs the bowling alley? Don ’ t you wonder if anyone is gon na even care when you die? ” 
 
 “ Why? ” Tom laughed while trying to suppress a cough. “ What, you wan na become president? Let ’ s say you ’ re even one of the great presidents. Not a Grant or a Fillmore. You're a Roosevelt. A Jefferson. You're a fuckin champion. Someone who actually gets written about. But what? You ’ re remembered for maybe a few hundred years, at best. You think in a thousand years anyone will really give a shit about Lincoln? Can you even name an important person from the 11th century? I didn ’ t think so. ” 
 
 “ Better that than being a lazy sack of shit who never did anything ” Brad muttered. 
 
 Tom laughed again. He was usually pretty confrontational, so Brad chalked it up to his altered mental state. “ Listen, you do you. But I ’ m happy without all that ambition. I know nobody ’ s gon na care when I ’ m gone, so I ’ m just having as much fun as I can in the meantime. You ever just take an evening, sit and stare out the window, and think, ‘ fuck man, this all is pretty fuckin cool ’? I do that every goddamn day. I go to bed with the biggest fuckin smile on my face. ” 
 
 “ Yeah that's cool and all, but you don ’ t ever have that, like, thought that maybe you should be doing something with your life? Making the world a little bit better for everyone? ” 
 
 “ Hey if that makes you happy, do it. Just don ’ t do it because you think anyone will give a shit what you did when you ’ re gone. You ’ ll waste your whole fuckin life chasing that. It ’ s bullshit. Just do whatever makes you happy, you know? If being the best goddamn president ever will make you happy, then do it. Me? I ’ m happy, man. ” Tom could tell he had inadvertently insulted his closest friend, so he expanded: “ Listen. We ’ re not fuckin stars or anything like that. How big you lived wo n't mean shit when you die. We ’ re all just fuckin dead. People don ’ t make supernovas. ” 
 
 Brad didn ’ t agree, but he didn ’ t want to waste their last few moments together arguing. He took a look around their neighborhood, gold-tinted under the setting sun, and sighed. “ Yeah. Still got ta shine though, you know?''
