Writing Resources from Fifteen Minutes of Fiction

Water, Water Everywhere!

You are sitting in your living room when suddenly it is flooded with water. There is a trap door in the ceiling, and another in the floor. The question of which door do you choose makes this room a metaphor of your life. The door on the floor is easy to open and readily rids your room of the water but alas, you remained trapped. If you allow the water to fill the room, you may be able to swim to the ceiling door and open it to escape. Of course, the conundrum is, do you take the easy way that saves you but keeps you trapped, or do you take a chance with the hope of escape?

Our lives are like this room in that we fill it with the detritus of day-to-day living. In the morning, we flush it all out only to repeat it again. We could choose to soar to the ceiling, to take a chance of escaping our humdrum lives and yet we choose not to do it. It is the fear of the unknown that holds us back. What if life on the other side of that door is not what you want, what if you can't succeed in that other life, what if, what if, what if?

As a person that lived that 'safe' life, who never took that chance, it is obvious that I'm not qualified to answer that question. The truth is my life has been all right, good but maybe not great but is that enough, I don't know. I admit I chose, the safe way, the path of least resistance, never risking more than I thought I could afford to lose. The big question is just what did I give up for contentment.

It is up to you to choose which trap door you want to try. Are you going to try for than extra degree, or travel for a year? Will you try to swim to the top of the corporate pool or will you stay in the comfort of the shallow end? These are questions that need to be answered while you are young, not pondered in hindsight. Neither door is completely right or wrong but many times the choice is non-reversible so make your choices wisely. As for the choices I made, well let me just say that there is a lot to be said about contentment and yet, what if I had...

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