A Million Dollars
A Million Dollars
Peyton Gallagher
I was given a million dollars, my choices were unlimited. Images flash of my deepest desires. How am I supposed to know where to start? “I can’t possibly narrow down my options” I said to myself. All I can think about is the good that could come. Suddenly all of my pre-existing issues wash away. I know what I want and now I have what I need to achieve it. I suddenly felt a new sense of calm. I am going to buy a big white house on an enormous plot of land full of animals and my children running around. The golden rays of sun will be beaming, the breeze flowing. I see my features in my children, parts of my husband too. I can’t help but think of how much my life will change; to some, one million dollars bought a house, but to me it brings my spark. Our family dogs run freely in the yard, the acres continue to grow, the land never seems to end.
I have it all.
I am a great mom. I remember when I was a young girl, I practiced ferociously various hairstyles on my dolls, whether it was pigtails or ponytails, braids,french and dutch style. I had it nailed down, and I was ready to be a mom at a young age. I knew I could raise girls into powerful women just as I was. My little girls and I; that was all I needed. We loved to do makeup, dress up, paint our nails, just as I had dreamed. My days are filled with smiles and laughter. Our day to day routine is always the same; there is nothing I would change.
I wake up in a bed surrounded by my own family including our puppies. the rays of sun awaken me and I feel the warmth graze my face. Suddenly the coldness returns. Those golden rays of light dim to complete darkness, and a deafening silence swallows me whole. My body drenched in a cold sweat–it was only a dream. I lay back down. I squeeze my eyes shut yearning to return to my life that did not exist. For what feels like hours, I try again and again to go back to sleep. My blinds begin to let in a faint light of grey; another day of clouds. My alarm sounds: 6 o’clock on the dot. While I must return to reality, I cannot forget. All I’m left with is a gutting feeling of nostalgia for a life that I never lived.
