"Where am I?"
My voice bounced off the abyss, absorbed into an empty dark infinity. No ground for my feet to push against, no sky for the wind to bend; and infinite dark stretched around in every direction. My breathing got faster and louder, as the beat in my ears, was pounding through all my being. End
Then I caught sight of something. A tree.
It stood at the center of the void, aglow with an ethereal light, the branches stretching outward like veins in the universe. I watched it, and it grew, brightening the nothingness with the soft glow of stars. There were tiny, shining stars scattered all along the limbs, but when I walked closer, it seemed that on every branch rested something: a scene, some frozen moment.
Curiosity has dragged me towards this. Now I reach forward and touch that branch, and then suddenly the whole world shifts.
A hospital room materialized. A man and a woman clutched each other's hands, eyes glistening with tears of joy. The woman held a newborn boy, wrapped in soft blankets, his tiny fingers curling around his mother's thumb. The father wiped away his tears and kissed both of them gently. "He's beautiful," the father whispered.
I felt a warmth in my chest. The love in that room was undeniable. It was a moment of pure happiness, untouched by the chaos of the world.
Then, the branch shimmered, and the scene shifted again.
A seven-year-old boy stood surrounded by balloons and a little cake, the parents straining to laugh while clapping. The child, with innocence sparkling in his shining eyes, grinned. "Are you happy, my child?" his mother asked.
"Yes! A lot!" he responded as laughter bounced in the air.
Their house was modest and the told face strain of the financial burden on their household wasn't masked at all, yet there was a contented joy in them. On a branch, a relative bent down to a boy.
"What do you want to be when you grow up?"
The boy smiled broadly. "An astronaut!" he exclaimed, full of dreamy eyes.
His words resonated in my mind as I moved to the next branch.
---
The boy was in middle school now, sitting with his friends. They were talking of money—the amount they wanted to make, how they wanted to be in wealth.
"I don't understand money", he stated, his voice firm. "I don't want to be part of this race. I want to do something different. I want to live a life that matters".
His words hit me. There was a fire in his eyes, a determination that set him apart.
But as I kept moving forward, I saw something change.
He now sat in his room at high school late into the night talking on the phone with a girl. His eyes sparkled in a way they never had before. He was in love. He whispered dreams to her and made promises of forever.
And then one day, she was gone.
He sat in the dark, gazing at his phone, his shattered heart. There was an ache that prevented him from feeling complete; he passed his exams barely. The spark still in his eyes faded; it made way for something else—the doubts and uncertainties.
The second branch revealed him staring at his reflection in a mirror, contemplating his future. He still harbored dreams of making it big, but his dreams had shifted. He was no longer speaking of becoming an astronaut. He was instead searching for ways to make money.
What an idiot, I thought. He never wanted to be in the race, yet here he is, running just like the rest.
I watched him come home from his first job. There was excitement, and pride, but something else. This gnawing emptiness. He built a home, and bought things he had once wished for but the satisfaction never lasted. He wanted more. The peace he once had, the dreams he once held, they were gone.
He worked harder, chased promotions, investments, business ideas. The boy who once wanted to explore the stars was now drowning in a sea of numbers, transactions, and stress.
The race he once vowed never to run had consumed him entirely.
And then, the final branch.
---
A road at night.
He was driving, thoughts furiously churning in his mind about his next move, how to make more money, how to secure a future that could never be solid enough. His phone buzzed, but before he could turn and look at the number—
Headlights. A truck.
A deafening crash.
Silence.
---I
took a step back. My heart was pounding. The scene disappeared, and another one appeared before my eyes-only this time it was different. The energy and the emotions were in the same place where he was born, but now he was lying on the bed in the hospital, lifeless.
I gulped. Was that it? Was that all there was?
I turned to the next branch.
There was nothing but darkness.
No images, no glowing lights, no life. Just emptiness.
I gazed into the void, my chest tightening. Then, movement. A faint glow appeared. A silhouette. A person standing near the glowing tree, watching the branches.
I took another step closer.
And then, my breath caught in my throat.
The figure standing there…
It was me.
I stumbled back. The realization hit me like a tidal wave. I'd been watching my own life play out. This was my story, my journey, my mistakes, my pursuit of something I once swore never to want. I became the very thing I dreaded to be: one more runner in an endless race.
I looked back at the tree. Its glowing branches still flickered with the echoes of my life. The choices I made, the moments I lost, the dreams I abandoned.
And the final branch-the darkness-was waiting for me.
I closed my eyes, and for the first time, I understood. Perhaps the real race wasn't about chasing something. Maybe it was just about remembering why we started running in the first place.