"My Imaginary Friend"

It's been so long, I can't even remember when we first met.  Probably when I was a little kid, or even when I was a baby. 

We have been through everything together, me and my imaginary friend.  From high school, to starting a career, and even when I got married and started having kids.  We still kept tight. 

Sometimes we fall out, but somehow we end up back together.  He has let me down many times, but I have known him longer than I have known any other friend.

My imaginary friend is a trip; always looking and talking about others like they are so different from him.

He takes pride in what he has, and gets down in the dumps when he thinks about the things that he wants, that he doesn't have.

My imaginary friend identifies himself with what he does.  If he is not successful in his career, or not accomplishing his goals, he feels like he is less than a man.  This dude is always talking about what he did in the past, and feeling that he should be able to top that.

I see him try to block it out, but he worries what people think about him.  He tries to be humble, but I see that look of satisfaction on his face when people compliment him and give him praise.  When people aren't feeling him, or don't understand him, he tries to ignore it.  But I know it still gets to him sometimes.

Because we are so close, I can feel the stress, anxiety, and fears that he goes through in different stages of his life.  Sometimes it bothers me, and I wonder why I even hang with this dude.

We are nothing alike, but we go everywhere together, and hang in all the same places.  I've been hanging with my friend named Ego so long, imagined him and created him so long ago, that somehow, somewhere along the path, I got confused and thought that my imaginary friend Ego was Me!