The Wreckage

The trigger was the words 'the wreckage.'

I sit here at the end of my life. I look back at the road I travelled. Where accomplishments and times I made someone proud should be there is only wreckage and naught but ash.

 

A fool is all I've been and is all I'll ever be. I made nothing of myself and only served to bring down other. Wasted away, the days flew by as if they were cars on an interstate. I always told myself I'd do great things.

 

I told myself I'd make enough money to have a big house, nice things and wave success in the face of everyone who looked down on me in life. I told myself my name would be known and I'd go down in the history books.

 

I told myself a lot of fanciful things but that's all it was. Talk, delusions of grandeur, a lie I told myself to cope with being such a loser. I never amounted to anything and now it's too late. I wasted my life convincing myself I was going somewhere instead of actually moving my feet.

 

I just stood there like a moron and watched the train of reality come ever closer. By the time I was able to be honest with myself it had already hit me. Yes, sadly, it's too late for me. I'm just a sad old man with nothing in this life and no one to remember the things that never happened.

 

But it's not too late for you. You're young, you have potential, you can change the world. Never forget the power in your hands. Never forget that everything you do today will have an effect 10 years down the road. Opportunities only happen once, if you pass them up you don't get a second chance. So go now. Go!

Author's Note

I used to write a lot on typetrigger.com

They would put out a new trigger, which was a word or a couple words, every 8 hours. You would then write something that was inspired by it in 300 words or less.

I cracked open my old account to bring you all my lovely creations.

The trigger was the words 'the wreckage.'

This trigger came at an interesting moment. Life was nothing but downhill, I couldn't get hired ANYWHERE(McDonald's even turned me away), and I was just feeling absolutely hopeless. So when I wrote this, I was kind of trying to cheer myself up. The result was an old man giving advice to a young person about making the most of life.