like a piece of you has been taken

As I have been reflecting on the past ten years I remembered the good (see the previous post) and the bad.  One of the bad things that comes to mind was when my roommate and I had our apartment broken into not even 6 months after I got out of school. 

I will never forget that feeling of walking into my apartment building to see all the doors kicked in.  The whole place was a mess and everything had been turned upside down.  They hadn't even taken that much of monetary value and no one was home when this happened which are both good.  However, what was taken were items of great sentimental value (for my roommate) and I felt like a piece of me was lost that day.  Looking back on the event in the aftermath I feel like it was hard to trust society and not have a jaded outlook.  One of the greatest losses was my newly acquired SLR camera which I was particularly excited about using.  I vividly remember thinking that it didn't matter to me if someone wanted it and were actually going to use it...then they could have it.  However, I knew all to well in our neighborhood that that camera was not going to be used by anyone and would more likely fund an addiction. 

Several years after this occurred a friend of mine was telling me that someone had told her about a "great deal" on a car stereo.  When she told me how much it was I knew immediately that the stereo must have been hot.  I told her that she shouldn't buy it because it was hot.   Justifiably so her argument was so what?  Until one experiences something like this it's difficult to convey to them why they shouldn't do their part to propagate this "industry".