I found the content of life to be boring, we wake up, we work, we eat, we sleep again and again until the day we return to dirt.
Yet, somehow that people around me seemed to find joy in this boring world of repetitiveness.
Whether it’s from glimpsing the sight of the setting sun or rubbing the furry belly of a cat. They seemed to find joy in the most meaningless things of this mundane world.
My condition was quickly noticed by my teachers and I was sent to a therapist by my parents. According to him, I was suffering from “severe depression”.
He gave me an unnecessary amount of antidepressants and medical debt before sending me on my way.
Of course, I treated all of his words as pure nonsense.
With the press of a lever, all his medicine vanished down the toilet in a swirling vortex. He was a shitty doctor after all, so was his diagnosis.Though come to think of it, my action could’ve caused water pollution. How inconsiderate of me.
But, to avoid adding more medical debts to my parents’ bank account, I put on a mask to hide my irritation. I began going around making “friends” and “lovers”. And I even became one of the model students of my school.
I was “cured” of depression, my Mother called it a miracle while my Father called it a blessing of God.
Deep inside, it still felt empty. I’ve tried a lot of different ways to squeeze the juices of pure bliss out of this dried up world. Love, sex, alcohol, cigarettes, marijuanna, gay sex and even threesome, none of those worked for me.
Then, some terrorists flew two commercial airliners into the World Trade Center sending the entire nation into a frenzy. A wave of Patriotism swept across the states like wildfire.
Every household raised up the red, blues and white, and the congress all came together to expand the government’s power through the patriot act. And our government invoked article 5 to form an international coalition.
People around me all hopped on this train of anger and sold their body to the Armed Force.
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I too signed away my soul to the Army. Not out of hate or revenge, but out of hope that this life of boring mediocrity can receive some changes.
And it did.
During my time serving in the Army, I’ve witnessed and experienced things that I would have never engaged in civilian life.
War made men mad, I have seen saints turned into cold hearted killers in the face of imminent danger. I have strongest man of our company cowered in fear hearing the whistle of a dropping artillery shell.
Yet, I remained sane.
The war arised something new inside me, thrill. The sweat I shed when a bullet grazed past my head, the horrible sound of a 30mm autocannon, alas, a sparkle of emotion.
My fellow squad mates all called me a madman, and I could understand why, you’d automatically assume someone to go crazy when he could stay unfazed even as he was about to die.
Of course, I wasn't at the brinks of death 24/7.
When nobody was watching, I turned toward crime. There was something titillating about crime, the occasional thought of someone watching me gave me a dopamine rush.
But, I was never caught.
Fun time didn’t last long, my arm suffered nerve injury after an ambush. They told me that it was a career ending injury, so I received an honorable discharge.
I came back to the States to find out that I have become a war hero. I was even awarded with a silver star for my bravery in war, and my friends and families were all proud of me.
If only they knew all the things I did during the war. I couldn’t help but think about their reaction, would they be disgusted, disappointed or both.
I managed to find a stable job in the defense industrial complex thanks to my old friends. Unfortunately, life went back to being stale.
One day, I met up with an old classmate. She was pretty, but married.
We talked about the good old days and how we’re doing now.
Her marriage wasn’t quite happy. Her husband cheated on her, and lived like a pest in her house. The only reason they haven’t divorced was because they have children.
That was when I thought whether her pathetic husband would find out if I seduced his wife.
He did eventually find out, and he barged into my home with a shotgun to ask me why I slept with his wife.
What a fool, he had already lost the trust of his wife when he cheated on her, people around him all thought that he was a leech feeding off the wealth of his wife’s family. And now he dared to kill me with his own traceable shotgun.
I couldn’t help but laugh, then I answered his question honestly.
“Because it’s exciting sleeping with a married woman.”
Then, lights out.
My only regret was that I couldn’t see the end of his demise.