A short chapter 1

A Story by 5John17

wanted to try writing something, so here it is.

Dng!, DNg!!, DNG!!! Dng!, DNg!!, DNG!!! the alarm plays, and simultaneously John wakes up in sync with the alarm. Then, he walks unsteadily to the bathroom to brush his teeth and shower. After that, he quickly grabs breakfast and rushes to school. At school, time starts to slow down and most things seem to go in one ear and out the other. Indeed, education is important, but to what extent? John just like most people his age, couldn`t understand the value of education. Well that was a given though. After all, he was still only in his primary level of education, so he studied solely because he was told to, did not put in proper effort into his studies and had lacklustre grades. Despite how boring studying seemed, time would still pass mercilessly, and before he knew it, he was in his secondary form of education. However, the only thing that changed was maybe he became more interested in girls and his male traits became more dominant. Other than that, there was no change, the sun would come then go, and a day would be over just like that, without much significant change

Well, nearing the end of his secondary education, a greater emphasis was placed on education by teachers and parent about how education would affect one`s future career, and finding some light in that statement, John chose to study and sacrifice whatever friendship he had. Well, he didn`t actually have much friend beside his Gameboy sp at that point of time, probably because he was an introvert by nature, but that was beside the point, he studied relentlessly holding on to the words that education is important insofar as “ to succeed in life, one must succeed in education.” As a result, he studied and studied and then sat for his important exams- the exams that would determine which school he would go to in the future.

Well, if life was a game, John would have gotten A`s. After all, the formula went study hard= plus intelligence and high intelligence meant straight A student. Well, as you probably guessed this equation didn’t hold true to John, not at all. John results came and he got all C`s. That day, tears wanted to flow out, but he held out until he reached home. When he reached home, he cried and cried so badly to the point, he had no appetite and his parents didn’t even dare to say- what a failure of a son he was. After all their friend`s son “didn’t” study and had good grades but their son didn’t. They swallowed up that feeling and said something along the lines of “son, there is still a way. And you can do better next time” but obviously that made John just feel worse, after all it`s just false hope. When one fails and doesn’t study, that line may give hope, but if you try your best and fail what grounds is there that one can do better the next time, by what studying? If studying didn’t work the first time, why would it work the second time? Well if life was a game there would probably be 3 options. One, live a thug/ delinquent life and give up on studying, this seemed fun in comics, after all delinquents had freedom, but then again everyone looks down on that kind of lifestyle for so many reasons. Option two, keep quiet like an introvert, after all silence is golden. This option would probably result in no bad blood, but at the same time he would just be bundling up his feelings and could just he would be in a fragile state. And lastly option three, take his life, since life seems so difficult. Well, option three would probably be an easy way out but would also have dire consequences on his loved ones.

Well, if John was in a logical state, obviously he would know his parent mean well for him and had no ill intent in their words, it just that they weren’t the best at counselling. So John in his illogical state chose… none of the options, instead he lashed out at his parent saying they didn’t understand him and ran off. Well, what turned out next was painfully obvious, John couldn`t do much with only a few dollars, he could only afford a meal, let alone rent a place to stay so he just lurked around and thought about life. After all the feeling of bitterness and regret dried up with his tears, he came to the conclusion that the world was screwed up and that hard word does not mean success. He blamed his teachers, for being so bad at teaching, and he blamed the examiners for being biased against him. Basically, he blamed everyone but himself, although immature, it was the only thing he could do to get over the grief. He shouted “arghh!!!, the world is screwed up with all his might!!!“ And the next thing he knew a book came flying to him, with someone shouting shut up, some people are trying to sleep. Well, soon the cops came and his worried parents scolded him for worrying but it sounded like gibberish to John who felt so tired of the world so he just nodded his head, too tired from the events of the day. For some reason, John took that book home so that he could burn it as a useless form of revenge against that guy, but it had a really pretty picture of some animated character in skimpy clothing so john decided to read it. BAM, the book was so good, it was even better than the Gameboy sp. It was about a boy who kept on failing but never gave up. The boy initially blamed everyone for him being a first rate loser wannabe and could never move forward as a result but then he met a heroine who changed his life entirely, her attitude to never give up despite being from a poor family made him realise how pathetic he was, and from then on the boy tried his best to stop blaming everyone and instead focus his energy on improving himself and then then the book ended. Crap, John related to the character so much not because of how much he like the girl in the book just like the mc but because he felt that it related so much to his life so John decided that maybe, even if it`s difficult, struggling didn’t seem so bad. And maybe, just maybe if he tried again, something good may just happen. And with that change in mindset, the gears in John life started to move in a different direction from the mundane life of underachieving.

Fact sheet

(School in Developed countries like the one John usually focuses on a holistic education day, although countries may vary in the way they teach their children- for John, his country made him learn mainly the arts, math and science.)