Stay Afloat
A sound screeches across a damp clustered building only to disperse shortly afterwards. Yelling is blurred into words that never reaches the ears of its recipients as little dew drops claw at those in the blue abyss. There was a clang of metal, a splash of water, and a final beep. Then, numerous numbers float through out the thick humid air and more yelling was heard. Throughout the building it is packed with students who wish to become one like a fish or perhaps even better. The building itself has two gigantic intelligently carved holes filled with filtered sea water, that covers nearly the entire space of the swim club of the highly respectable swim team “ Champ Crocs”. Everyone there is known to be intensely passionate, motivated, and encouraged to continue forth in their continuously improving swim journey. However, if one would look extremely close in the crowd of cheering swimmers, they could see an almost unnoticeable frown on the usually emotionless face of Champ Crocs’s best swimmer, Garrison, as he quickly makes his departure after the day’s hardships of practice.
The departure of Garrison goes unnoticed, but even though he left, his problems never failed to follow him wherever his destination was. He decided reluctantly to rest at a nearby park after his sudden leave, but with every step his head begins to increasingly fill up with unsolved negative thoughts. It is sadly normal for him to be in this situation, but he grown somewhat adapted to it even if it sometimes left him wanting to bang his head on a hard wall until those darn thoughts fled his mind. Garrison shakes his head and sits on a silver swing. He then tilts his face upwards into the starry sky and stares straight at the enormous glowing boulder in the sky.
“ These feelings are confusing. Everything is a puzzle in life. Maybe, just maybe I can find peace.” The boy murmured hoping the friend in the sky would hold a conversation with him, but it instead reacted with pure scorn and hid behind some nearby rain clouds. The boy sighed softly and looked to the bright green grass below him as he leaned to the right metal chain of the swing. Garrison then let his weaken mind and heart be met with his everlasting thunder clouds.
This should have not been a problem, but with time comes thinking and thinking can become disastrous. It all revolves around his future profession, swimming. Garrison thinks, no he knows this is completely ridiculous. A sport cannot be problematic nor cause immense sorrow in a person. However, for him that was not the case. Garrison’s parents thoroughly planned out his life even before his birth. His parents make a living off of sports and they expects all three of their children to continue this tradition. At first, he thought it could have been fun like a little activity set aside for after school or when he was bored. However, his parents are strict, the practices were bone breaking difficult, and he has to swim now and all the way until retirement. Garrison just does not feel connected to the sport and therefore does not want to have to deal with it in the future. However, once he said this to his parents they argued with him and even threw out major consequences at him if he tried to quit. His brothers, once they heard about the fight, disliked him then to now as they thought he was lazy and an embarrassment to the family. Sadly, that was only part of the problem.
Swimming managed to create a larger chain of conflicts for Garrison. He no longer knew what he wanted to do or how his future should go. Honestly, his heart is a huge question mark and his mind does not know if it wants to listen to his parents. Not only that, but he now does not know who to talk to. His problem does not seem like a problem at all and with his family not hearing him out, talking to somebody is definitely not the right route to take. He is talented at something he finds no sparkle in. Something so tiny can turn in a bush of thorns. This is ridiculous.
The night has not moved as it lets darkness grasps those who stay within its borders. The lone boy at the swings of a park turns his gaze up into the shadowed sky with foggy dark eyes.
“I do not know anything anymore or maybe I never have. Maybe if I let my parents take control, I will not be puzzled nor a disappointment any longer. After all, my kind are not fully educated nor responsible for themselves yet.” Garrison said to the sky. To his dismay, his friend never reappeared and Garrison sighs. He then looks left and right once he realizes it was late out. It is pitch black and the wind is warning him of a storm. He looks to at the swim club at his left and his neighborhood to the right. He is lost.