He’s sitting staring down into his coffee, trying to decide what to do. There is pressure from all sides, but the strongest source of all is coming from inside. The pressure builds, threatening to become a volcano. He doesn’t know what to do.
It’s all so real, and all so simple; isn’t it? It should be simple, right? he asks himself as he swirls in another eddy of thought, forgetting about the coffee. If there is a right decision, the one I should make, I should just know, shouldn’t I?
The uncertainty is what is getting to him. The unknown. The fact that he doesn’t know where he’s going, only where he’s been. He doesn’t know what to do, only who to be. He’s himself, first and foremost. So, what’s holding him back?
Fear. Fear is holding him back; keeping him from doing what his heart calls for. The fear of acting against the norm. The fear of confronting his friends, telling them what he’s decided. It’s that fear. That immense fear, that keeps him from telling anyone, even himself what he truly wants.
He’s scared of judgement, of having people mock him, telling him that he has chosen badly. But, now he realizes, he will just be strong. There is no other way.
As he drinks another sip of lukewarm coffee, looking around at the people surrounding him in the cafe, he reminds himself that no one here would care what he chooses. He’s made his choice, he realizes. Without meaning to, he’s made it. He knows it in his heart, he’s known it all along.
Life is too short; it just didn’t feel right to stay where he is. He’s chosen the unknown, the uncertainty, the adventure. He will be strong and stay true to himself. At the end of the day, that’s all that matters.
He puts down his coffee cup, leaves a tip on the table and walks out the door into the crisp spring air.
He is going to take the leap.
I like the way you continue that speculative element throughout the story, in which he is grappling with some uknown choice he has to make as the audience is left to wonder what this choice might be. For indeed, while he is putting fear of the uknown aside, we are now to fear what that uknown decision might be. Nice piece!
Thank you! I find that fear is a very big reason why we choose not to take the leap into the unknown
I finished the last sentence of this piece with a smile on my face. I think fear is a major feeling in our world today. Yesterday I was in a workshop and the presenter made the statement that the opposite of love is not hate. He maintains that the opposite of love is fear — which can progress to hate.
I love that: “love is the opposite of fear”. It really touched me