One in a Million

I was like most 12-year old boys. Dreaming of being a sports star and not really seeing how the school work was important. I didn’t need to do well in school. I wanted fame, glory, and money. I was going to be a professional racecar driver. I was going to make my family proud and be the envy of my peers and it was everything that filled my daydreams in school. I was one in a million, the man who was going to be everything and make everyone proud. I’m not like the rest, I’m special despite what they say.

I was like most 12-year old boys. Dreaming of being a sports star and not really seeing how the school work was important. I didn’t need to do well in school.

One day, my mom and dad called for me and laid out a paper with a bunch of numbers I didn’t understand at the time. They told me money ran out and they couldn’t afford to keep me in a racecar. My dream was dead. That was fine, I have other options, so many passions. The plan changed, but not the goal; I just need to figure it out.

I met one of the most beautiful women I’d ever seen, told her what I was gonna be, and promised her a life beyond any other man could give her. School remained on the backburner as I lost myself in the eyes of the woman of my dreams. I developed a love I could never think of replicating and at such a young age I had so much potential to live up to for her now more than myself.

I graduated, but barely.

I went on to college with this idea of going after whatever would net me the most pay. I decided to go for radiology and figured that was a solid career with plenty of money. Not much fame from it, but can’t argue with being able to afford a lake house.

The problem was I didn’t have the passion for it, and my work showed it. Only fifty spots for the program that goes to over three hundred students, I was ranked two hundred somethingth. Was this even worth it? I decided it wasn’t and left school and started working full-time at a grocery store, still with the woman of my dreams.

I was going to make it worth it to her, I wouldn’t be bagging groceries long. I always had a passion for writing and crafting stories in my head. If I could become a famous author, that would be perfect. It brings fame, wealth, and a sense of humbleness. I just had to write the next great book and that book would then turn into the next great movie. We’d be set for life.

One year, two years, three years, and a fourth. A book was written, but not worth much. I wasn’t bagging groceries anymore, I had worked my way up to management, but it wasn’t worth much.

I turned to my girlfriend with tears in my eyes and asked her why she was still here. “Leave and find a man you deserve, that deserves you.” Her eyes watering as well, she turned to me and grabbed my hand, and with her other, she pulled a diamond ring out of her pocket and stopped down to one knee in front of me.

She said, “You are one in a million; the man who is my everything and make me proud. You are not like the rest and special despite what you say.”