Holden was right.
I keep forgetting that screwed up fictional character had it all figured out. By the time you get to the end of The Catcher in the Rye you start realizing what has been happening this whole time and then he gives his only piece of advice from the whole novel: "Don't ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody." Is it wrong to miss people? So many factors of life tell us that life is a forward motion meant to leave the past in the past and focus on everything new. I found that my life is the sum of the people I have met. I have met so many incredible people over the years that I am amazed I have lost contact with. Someone gets me talkin' about something, some old story, some old time, and then I talk about those people... and I start missing them. I feel bad if I remotely begin to forget people. I think it's important to keep up with the people who were important to us.
We are the sum of whom we've encountered.
I have really improved over the years, usually through the hardest events. The people that went through those with me have really helped a ton. Most were only with me for a week or six weeks, some for years, but most may never know how important they were. In fact, is it socially acceptable to just say, "Hey, thanks, you really helped a ton"? Last I checked it's not. It should be.