Particular Interest

I stare through the window and watch the sun set for the tenth time knowing it will be the end. ‘Coward’ and ‘chicken’ I have been called too often. Not this time; it will be different. My shoes slip on easily and in only a few moments, I was downstairs. Empty, as usual. Why it was surprising, I still don’t understand. My family weren’t coming back; they didn’t love me, they didn’t care for me.  I leave the house, walking to the cliffs, with stranger’s eyes peering at me with distaste. Keeping my head down, I continue walking in the cold. The memorable spot was still the same – boundary fence and benches. People pass me by but take no notice of me standing on the outside of the fence. Alone and isolated is what I feel. The waves smash the cliff; the sound, liberating. I look down at the water, adrenaline pumping through my veins. A salty ocean breeze creates a memorable scent and signals the beginning of forgetting. The light from the sun gleams from the sky and makes...

Lifting myself up I crawl through the window, crunching over the jagged glass edges. It had changed. My house was not my house anymore. This used to be where I shared my memories and my happiness. Now it is an abandoned building in the shadow of a once lively family of two. Leaves are scattered everywhere and everything seems to be in despair. The only piece of furniture left is the brown woollen couch cushions which lay squarely in the centre of the room. I walk towards it; stopping when I reach a wall pinned with Polaroid images. I run my hand over each one of them. "Mum's birthday in hospital" freezes me in place. I move onto the next pictures; my face in them forcing a smile and a laugh. No need to worry my friends. This was my problem that I had to deal with. I pull the last photo off the wall and walk again towards the cushions. The scattered leaves create a bed for me and I lie in them my head resting comfortably on the cushions. The room lights up, the firep...

Earlier this week, during class, someone asked me, ‘how much time do we have left?’  Now normally I would   take this to mean ‘how much time is there left to the end of the period’, but after a week of tests, with an English extension task ahead of me and an English advanced task already completed, I started to think a bit deeper into the meaning of what he asked me.  How much time do we truly have left? The simple answer is, not a lot. And I started to think further, so what about what we want to do with our lives, will we even have enough time to achieve what we want to achieve? We all have dreams, we all have goals, and in my opinion one of the very few things that makes us human, are our dreams; and the thing is, we don’t have that much time to do what we want to do and we will end up with even less time because of one of our biggest flaws – inaction. “Ambition is the path to success. Persistence is the vehicle that you arrive in.” One ca...