The New Game

I'm leaving work later than usual, exhausted, moving in slow motion.

I try to shake off all the thoughts about work. I have every right to have a life. I decide to walk home—maybe I'll get some movement in, maybe I'll disconnect. I pull my phone out of my pocket and realize I forgot to charge it. Well, that's one way to disconnect. A walk without a phone.

On a wall in front of me there's a message: "YOU WILL MAKE IT."

I don't know who wrote it, I don't know when, I don't know if it's meant for me. I guess it's a motivational line for everyone, it's kind of nice. But wait… make it where?

I keep walking slowly… Make it what? Make it through another workday just to start all over again tomorrow morning?

Even though I said I'd walk to relax, it only takes two seconds for my mind to imagine that someone placed that message exactly on my route. As if this exhausting game of a day had levels, clues, a purpose.

On another street, the same message: "YOU WILL MAKE IT", and underneath: "BE PATIENT."

Great… so we need patience to make it in this life? Or is patience the condition for success? I've been patient all day… I'm tired of being patient.

I look for the shortest way home, like I'm moving through a maze. Pigeons, cats catch my eye; they all seem so free… and I feel stuck in an endless loop. Every day feels like a copy of the last.

In front of me, another message on a wall: "CHOOSE DIFFERENTLY." Ha. What a joke. I feel like I'm in a game, moving on autopilot, dodging being crushed, but having no idea what the goal is, what the rules are, what I'm supposed to do to win. Maybe I should choose differently. But differently from what? From other people, or from the person I am every single day?

If there is a prize, I just hope it's not another day exactly like this one.