I Want to Leave Home #story-mentor

I am 16, tired of my mother's affection and father's attention. I am grown up now. I want to leave home.

Source

I am 19, topping every exam in class. I am the best, but need to get better. Summer holidays are for attending extra tuitions, there is no time to go home. Family and childhood friends can wait. Education is the ONLY important thing in life. I don't want to go home.

I am 22, topped my engineering class. I am the best. No one can hold a candle to me. My mediocre mates are looking for jobs after a visit home. Not me. I am ready to do my MBA. There is only one direction to move in life, up.

I am 24, topped my MBA, and got the best placement among my classmates. I have the biggest pay cheque and package after studying in the most renowned business school of the country. I am better than the best the country has to offer this year.

I am 25; I own a swanky new SUV and have a house of my own. Everyone in my office looks at me with respect and admiration. I invite my folks over for the weekend. They decline. No problem, my middle-class parents would not have been comfortable in my posh flat in any case.

I am 27; I have an even bigger house and a fancier car. I am my neighbours envy. I think friends are like leeches, they always want something from me. I am better off without them. I have a corner office and everyone's respect, do I really need anything else.

I am 29. I am a jetsetter. I am a globetrotter. I have been around the world. You should see the number of likes my photos on Facebook and Instagram get. They all say they love me, but I know they all envy me. I am forever travelling; I don't really have a home.

I am 31; women come and go in my life. They swarm around me like bees. Why should I get married and settle for one, when I can have anyone I want. I have a fleet of automobiles in my forever expanding garage. That is my real passion. Cars and travel. The rest can wait.

I am 32 lying on a hospital bed. All alone. No friends, no family. Nobody. Just the smiling doctors and nurses, only because I have a fancy health insurance policy. I cannot get the taste of the medicines out of my mouth. I want to eat home food. The hospital room resembles that of a 5-star hotel, yet I yearn for the hard mattress at my parents’ home. I can buy anything that money can buy, but for everything else...

...I want to go home

This story has been written in response to the prompt by @michelle.gent in the #story-mentor group. Use the hashtag to find a lot of interesting pieces by other members of the group as well as some very useful advice and guidance from Michelle.