“The Neon Sign”

Photo prompt by Bucography on Unsplash

Author’s Note: This is a Take Ten to Write story and has not been proofread for errors. If I feel inspired or if there’s interest in the story, I’ll post a revised, edited, and extended version at a later date. Happy reading!

That stupid neon sign. Every time I look at it, I’m reminded of my failures. I can’t believe that I used to think that I could actually achieve something in life, that I could be someone.

I still pass by that sign every day on my way home from the place that I’m supposed to call work. It mocks me, flashing obnoxiously in my face as I walk past, face lowered, hood up. It’s almost as if the shop owner kept that sign up all these years just to shove it in my face, that he could do something that I couldn’t.

Sometimes I regret laughing at the shop owner when I was young. I was ignorant to the ways of life, unable to map out my future to the destination of my dreams. Instead, I waded through life, passing by opportunities for lesser, meaningless activities.

Every day, on my way to school, I would pass that shop. I would stop at the window and look inside to see that shop owner doing the job of my dreams.

What a life it would be, to sell vacations for a living. To sell people not only their dreams, but their possible future reality. Imagine the worlds they could visit, the worlds they could create.

I was completely in love with the idea of virtual reality vacations. I still am.

Every day, that neon sign would remind me that the future is bright, that dreams can come true.

Still, as soon as the sign left my vision, so would my drive. I would revert to my old ways of sloppiness and carelessness.

So when the time came to choose an institution for higher education, I could only attend the lowliest pile of dirt on this planet. I couldn’t afford to go off-planet and my grades weren’t high enough for any other institution on this one.

Today, I’m still stuck on this same planet. I’m still stuck in the same house, walking the same roads, even going to the same school.

Sometimes, I consider changing my route to avoid the sign. But my feet never agree with my mind and day after day, I find myself treading the same path over and over.

Maybe my feet know something my mind doesn’t. Maybe my feet know that that sign fuels just the tiniest bit of motivation in me every time I see it.

Still, it’s not enough to make me want to start over. For now, I’ll settle with walking by that stupid neon sign every day, knowingly repeating the cycle of mistakes I started all those years ago.

Final Comments: Again, I’m not sure how I feel about this one. I started off with absolutely no idea for any plot and just kind of waited to see where it would take me. And this is what happened…

Overall Rating: 🤔