Life St(inks)
By Darwin Hepburn
When you drive by a green sign with the words Life St what does you mind think? Are you the optimist that wants to turn down it to see the wonders that lie within and beyond? Are you the pessimist that will merely disregard it with a laugh and drive on? Today in one man’s life, Life St would become the crossroads. At two am as he drove to clear his mind he came across Life St with a smirk. When he pulled over the stress of the woman he’d been with for years leaving him seemed to escape his mind. It was ironic how as he spray painted the letters “inks” to make the sign read, “Life Stinks” made his life stink just a little less. "You’re going nowhere! You’ve been trying to be a writer since you graduated high school! Give up!“ She shouted at him a lot. He had dreamed of being a writer since his freshman year in high school, to ask him to give up on his dream was to ask him to give up on life. When the woman you love asks you to choose between her and your dreams what do you do? Will you be the optimist who follows your dreams? Will you be the pessimist that knows when to throw in the cards? He was the type to cling to his dreams and found himself alone on Life St, or rather "Life Stinks”. As he stepped back to admire his work the grin on his face escaped him as the words sunk in and memories flooded him of how an hour before he had come home to an empty apartment. Empty that is, except for the note he found lying on the center of the floor that read, “The pursuit of your dream has become my living nightmare, we both need to wake up.” He retreated to his car with tears running down his face as he started the car and drove down Life St. When he came to the end he took a look at his passenger seat where a manuscript lie before looking up to see the headlights of a drunk driver before he slammed into his door crushing him on impact forcing him off of life street both literally and metaphorically. His body fell draped upon his last attempt at living the dream which the rescue crews would find and would later get published. Ironic huh, How much life stinks at the end of Life St and how he could only live his dream when he was trapped in the eternal dream? So I must ask, are you the optimist that sees this as a happy story about a man whose dreams came true? Are you the pessimist who sees this as a tragedy of a man who died for choosing his dream over the love of his life’s? Or are you just thinking, “Life Stinks”?
