One More Time: A Visit from Your Younger Self to Rekindle Lost Dreams

(🎧 Audio Version) One More Time: A Visit from Your Younger Self to Rekindle Lost Dreams

[📖 Prefer reading? Here's the story in script format.] ⬇

(Scene: A Small Bedroom, somewhere in Thailand. Afternoon. YOU lie on the bed, staring blankly at the ceiling.)

(Suddenly, the door swings open. A YOUNG MAN—the younger version of you, 16—walks in.)

You: What the—who are you?!

Young Man: You know who I am.

You: No way!

Young Man: Yeah, me. Sixteen. When we still believed in becoming the Greatest Writer in the world. Remember?

You: Great. I’ve officially lost it.

Young Man: Shut up. Look at you. Lying here like a dead fish. What happened to us?

You: Life happened.

Young Man: No, you gave up.

You: It’s not that simple. Writing every day, getting rejected again and again—it breaks you.

Young Man: So what? It’s part of the game. You keep going.

You: Easy to say when you haven’t lived through it.

Young Man: You’re making excuses.

You: Excuses? Do you know how exhausting it is to wake up every day knowing no one cares? That you’re just… average?

Young Man: You really believe that? That we’re average?

You: Yeah, I do, now.

Young Man: I didn’t think we’d turn into this…

You: Welcome to the future, kid.

Young Man: No wonder you’re failing. You’ve already decided you will.

You: You don’t know anything. You’re just a kid with big dreams and no clue how the world works.

Young Man: At least I had dreams!

You: And look where they got us!

(Silence. Your younger self stares at you, disappointed.)

You: Get out.

Young Man: But—

You: I said, get out. I don’t want to see you anymore.

Young Man: You promised us—

You: You still don’t get it, do you? Times have changed. Nobody reads anymore, and I’m not good enough to make them care. I’m just… average. Admit it.

(Your younger self hesitates, then leaves without another word.)

(You bury your face in your hands.)

You: How did I become this?

(Your eyes drift to the pen and paper on the desk. You stare at them for a long moment. Slowly, you stand, walk to the desk, pick up the pen, and sit down.)

You: One more time.

(You start to write.)

(Posted on Threads on 20.12.2024)

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