A Dream

By Anh Ngo '28

“Why are you so dumb?” his mom asks after finding out the boy got a 74 on his last test.
“Don’t you know how much I have invested in you? And this is how you show gratitude?” his mom continues, sharp, cold, and her jaw clenching.
The boy feels another bruise forming on his vulnerable heart. His chest tightens. Another heavy stone drops into the invisible sack he carries on his back.
This happens all the time. Normally, when he’s very proud of his effort, his mom or his dad cuts him off, scolding him for not having higher grades. When he does something wrong to his friend, he immediately isolates himself. In fact, when he does something wrong to anybody, he feels like a failure of society.
Suddenly, the room shifts. The wind starts gusting aggressively. The walls start pressing in. They try to crush him. He is isolated. He cannot escape. All of his friends and family members appear. They are not there to help him. They are there to drown him in misery. Their voices echo through the room
“Why are you like this…? Why…? You should have tried harder…”
He feels he cannot get himself out of the thoughts, the exhaustion. He stops resisting.
He hates feeling helpless. But the boy doesn’t know what to do.
Sweat.
“Beep…beep…beep.” 7:00 A.M. 
“Phew,” the boy wakes up. It’s time for school.
He feels the unusual heaviness of his backpack. It is now full of stones.
And another bruise forms on his vulnerable heart.

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