Turn around Bright Eyes

every now and then i fall apart

aug 11 - Hi

Hi. My name is Neri*. I�m here to tell you my story. I used to be a gossip junkie. I know you're all, "So? Everyone is.", but what you don�t know is I�m really serious about the gossip junkie part. Especially Hollywood gossips. And especially after I discovered the wonders of Internet. Instead of having to pay to learn the sordid going-ons of their lives (which I gladly did), with the internet I can read and be informed to my heart's content without paying a cent (except for the broadband services, but you know what I mean). I became addicted to gossip sites. I knew them all. I knew Perez Hilton before anyone in this country even got a whiff of him; and quit him early because the site was a bandwidth hog. I visited PageSix, Gawker, Defamer, The Superficial, Pinkisthenewblog, Jossip� they became my true best friends. And then I fell absolutely in love with laineygossip. Laineygossip claimed to be classy gossip smut and who wouldn't want to be classy? I became obsessed. I couldn't go through a day-no a couple of hours without logging on to the site despite the fact that lainey updates it only about twice a week. I knew everything there is to know about them "stars". I loved, was awestruck, amazed, appalled, shocked, not so shocked, and disgusted along with everyone else who were gossipmongers like me. I only realized how much this obsession was taking over my life when my friends don't even know who or what I�m talking about anymore.

The turning point for me came when the "firecrotch scandal" broke out. I KNEW WHO BRANDON DAVIS WAS WITHOUT INTRODUCTION. GROSS. Suddenly it was like a reflection of what I�ve become and it hit me like a freight-truck. Surely there is so much more to life than being able to recall Brandon Davis' past claim to fame(s) almost automatically! And I am not even a citizen of the United States! It was then that I took the decision to quit hard-core gossip, cold turkey. Cold turkey SALAD, even.

Of course it was really hard in the beginning. I felt yoooge yearnings to maybe just hit the sites just one more time, and maybe just scroll down the main titles without actually going into the contents, all the time. I never gave in and was quite amazed at my willpower to simply stay away from the haunting urls. Then there were the symptoms of withdrawals- shaking hands, anxieties (of wanting to know WHAT IS GOING ON IN THEIR WORLD RIGHT NOW) and listlessness�. Nevertheless, I stuck through it and life got better. At least my friends responded when I talk to them.

I rejoiced the day when I realized that I was cured. The whole gossip world has been abuzzed with the fact that Suri Cruise has not been seen in public since the day she was born. It is so important that they have even started a "Suri Cruise sighting" countdown. I HAD NO KNOWLEDGE. I WAS CURED! I AM AN EX-GOSSIP JUNKIE! Finally I was liberated from the clutches of evil that is the smutgossipworld. I felt so proud. Nowadays the only gossips I catch up with are the ones appearing on Yahoo! News, MSN News or Pancaindera. It is only 30% of what I used to be aware of and I am okay with that.

I�m telling you this because I want to share that if I could quit my (gossip) obsession, you could do it too. Be it anything. If I can do it then you sure as heck can too! Because I am not a strong person to begin with. It took a lot of guts, yes, and willpower, yeah, but I believe and am sure that everyone has it in them to be strong and beat whatever it is that they want to beat. Look at me. Take that first step and don't be afraid. You will succeed. I believe in you.

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*Names remain unchanged to promote honesty and self-confidence.