Relatives From Afar

When I was eight, I only knew my relatives from my Mom’s side as I had never seen any relatives from my Dad’s side. One day, I was relaxing on the couch watching TV when a man suddenly appeared in front of our door and started to knock. I was anxious to open the door as my parents had told me never to open doors for anyone unless I knew who was coming. I thought the man would just leave a few seconds later but as I was about to go back to watching TV, the man knocked again. I started to worry but decided to just ignore the man again. This time, he looked like he had left as I didn’t see a shadow through the window. That was until I saw the lingering appearance of someone’s face pierce through my window. Initially, I thought I was going crazy, but the more I thought about it the more I panicked. I thought thieves were looking for an empty house to rob with no one inside or maybe once I opened the door they were gonna kidnap me and burn my house down. That was until my parents yelled at me to open the door for my Dad’s relatives. That was the day I vowed to never panic over such a silly situation again

Getting Scammed

Image by Thomas Park

Growing up, my parents never let me use electronics or strictly monitored me while I did. Normally, I was only allowed to use it on Friday through Sunday with my parents in the room doing work or whatever they needed to. However, one day, my parents were out shopping and trusted my oldest brother to supervise me and make sure I wasn’t using any electronics. That day, I got really bored and decided to sneak into the room. My brother who was supervising me, didn’t care though because he didn’t fully understand what the word “supervise” meant meaning I could just walk into the room without a care in the world. So, I just snuck my way in but another problem arose, I didn’t know how to turn on the computer so I just started pressing random buttons hoping the screen would turn on. It took me a while until I pressed a button and the screen turned on but I felt so scared as I thought I had broken the computer because of a spinning wheel and a black screen. A sigh of relief hit me as it showed the lock screen. But, there I faced my most difficult challenge so far, unlocking the computer. Whenever I wanted to use the computer, I would first have to ask my parents and they would unlock the computer for me. Since they weren’t there and I didn’t know the password, I thought all my efforts would be for nothing and I just sat there feeling disappointed as all that hard work went to waste. Then, I saw it, at the bottom of the screen there was a Post-it note that contained the password. I felt shocked as I didn’t even know the password was there since I wasn’t observant when I was a child. Entering the password, I felt the same level of excitement as entering a candy store. I knew I had to cherish the time as my parents could be home any second. So I started to open games I normally played as that was the only thing I did on the computer but I realized, my parents weren’t home which meant no one was there to stop me from doing other things. I slowly move the mouse toward the weird circle icon with red, yellow, and green surrounding a blue circle. I didn’t know that was chrome at the time but I went wild after finding out I could search for anything on it. As I was exploring Chrome, I came across a certain website I didn’t know was about to bring my whole plan down regardless of what I tried. As I clicked on the website, a certain popup popped on my screen saying, “Click and enter your password to earn free money”. As a gullible child I didn’t know any better and decided to enter the password of my account I used to game and didn’t think anything of it at the time. A few minutes passed and I decided to start playing the game I normally played, but as I opened I was logged out of my account and never got access to it ever again.

FINAL STORY

Mental Dilemma 

A chill breeze hits a boy’s skin as he walks to class. He walks into class with his usual expression; a warm smile and a charming arua as he greets his classmates. He turns his head and stares out the window, watching the sun rise as thoughts run empty through his mind. In the corner of his eye, he turns his head to see his friend walk through the door across the room. He smiles but she doesn’t notice him or acknowledge his presence, acting as if she doesn’t know him at all. She acted as if they weren’t laughing their heads off a few days ago, a few weeks ago, and even a few months ago. The boy thinks of nothing of it and turns back at the window, staring at the sunset and reminiscing about the past he tried to move on from. A past where he felt comforted and loved by his friend. He wanted to forget that feeling to trick himself into thinking everything would be alright, and it was just another phase he could move on from. 

An hour passes and the bell rings for break time. The boy walked around the school campus and sat in a corner where it was quiet and desolate. He opened his phone to read a notification from the same girl from class. It was a two-message notification responding to the message he sent a week ago and wondered if he should respond. One year ago they had a bond that felt like they could talk endlessly, a bond where they could tell each other their problems and they know the other person could make them feel better in an instant. She was like a shining light that pierced the surface of a dark cave. She appeared at a time when the boy had been in a fragile state and as lonely as ever. Every moment spent with her made the boy feel like heaven and his mind couldn’t get enough of her. He wondered if this was what love was like, to have someone you could trust and spend time that felt like dreams coming true. 

Though, he always doubted that it wouldn’t last forever even though she had told him, “dude our friendship is gonna last forever stop thinking so negatively”. Even with this in mind, his fears became more evident as a new school year started and she had started to slowly drift away from him and text less. Texting had turned to responding, and she posted more frequently about other people. He felt hopeless once again and thought he was overthinking everything. Maybe they didn’t have friendship as special as he thought it was. He didn’t want to believe it was true. A friendship he thought wouldn’t succumb to a fading friendship like his previous ones. He held onto the belief that the old her was somewhere deep down. Deep down, he wanted to express their current state and move on. He felt it in his bones. 

Every time he wanted to, he felt anxious, and worried, and didn’t want to make a fool of himself. He felt his heart pound fast and hard like a hammer constantly hitting his head with negativity, drilling it into his body until it was engraved. He wanted to end it all. He didn’t want to tell anyone and just wanted to be left alone. He didn’t want to feel like a burden and knew it was going to be awkward. He closed his eyes and breathed in, and out. In, and out. He cleared his mind and looked up at the sky once more. He observed the vibrant clouds and deep blue sky, resembling his peaceful days. He turned back at his phone and decided he would move on, and ignore her. 

A few weeks have passed by and it was a chilly morning. The boy walked into class with his normal expression, a warm smile, and a charming aura as he greeted his classmates. Only this time, it was expression was genuine. He looked out the window watching the sun creep above the horizon and a yellow shine across the sea. In the corner of his eye, he turned his head and noticed his friend enter the room. Only this time, she walks towards him as the boy turns his head back. This time, she asked, “Why are you ignoring me?” with her eyes looking away with a worried expression. From that day forward, he learned communication skills are vital, and overthinking fries your mental health.