If I may ask a question—what's the definition of life?

  Religions might call it a gift from the divine. Philosophers will argue it's the pursuit of meaning, knowledge or happiness. Science says it’s a series of biological functions. Society? Well, they just want you to live by a checklist—school, job, family, retirement, done.

  But truth is, life doesn’t really have a fixed meaning. It’s just… broad. Too vague to pin down. Everyone starts at a different point, lives through different crap, and ends up seeing the world in their own way.

  To me, it’s just a story.A beginning.An end.And whatever kind of nonsense happens in between.

  Now what screws up people like me is one thing: expectations.

  From the moment we’re born, people start ying them on us. Parents, teachers, bosses, even strangers. Everyone has some idea of what I should be, how I should act, what I should want. And yeah, we do it to ourselves too. You expect more. You want to be better. You want to matter. Always trying to meet someone’s standard.

  And I believed it. For a long time, I really did.

  I ran the race. Tried to climb the dder. Failed. Got back up. Failed again. It’s exhausting, living like that—constantly trying to match up to what people think you’re supposed to be.

  People are always throwing expectations at us, like weights we didn’t ask to carry. If I mess up, I’m seen as a failure. If I meet those expectations, cool—until they push the bar even higher and expect more again.

  Though that's the way of human life and it's result of our handiwork. We built the system ourselves. We created this loop—expectation, performance, judgment—and now we’re trapped in it, running circles just to keep up. No wonder so many of us burn out before we even get a taste of what we actually want.

  But that's not entirely a bad, BAD thing. It stops us from turning into killers, rapists and all that...

  ...Anyway, sorry for the long rant. Guess I wanted to sound cool for my first-ever opening monologue.

  But to be real? My life’s crap right now. I’ve failed too many times, slipped by on dumb luck, barely dodged disasters. I'm exhausted.

  Honestly, I just wanted a break from all of it.

  .

  'What the-?!'

  As soon as he opened his eyes, the first thing he noticed was the ground beneath him—cold, hard dirt—and the blue sky above him, stretching out endlessly through the gaps in the thick tree canopy. He blinked, trying to make sense of what he was seeing. This wasn’t his room. This wasn’t even anywhere he recognized.

  His heart pounded in his chest, his breath quickening as he sat up only to realize—he was completely naked.

  "Did I get kidnapped or what? But why am I buck naked though?" he muttered aloud, his voice rough and panicked. His hands instinctively scrambled to cover himself, but it only made him feel more vulnerable. He looked around again—no sign of civilization. Just endless trees...

  He was in the middle of nowhere, and he had no idea how he got here.

  He tried to steady his racing mind, but the fear crept in anyway. Who wouldn’t be scared as hell? His whole body felt stiff and foreign, like he had just woken up from some kind of deep sleep. The st thing he remembered was being stuck in the never-ending grind of his crappy life.

  Now he was in some godforsaken forest, naked and alone.

  “Okay, okay. Calm down,” he whispered to himself. “Just… think.” But thinking wasn’t doing much right now. His memory was bnk. The st thing he remembered clearly was lying in bed, mentally screaming into the void, wishing life would just pause for once.

  Not this, though.

  Not this.

  He forced himself to stand. His legs felt like jelly, and the cold bit at his skin. But he had no choice. Whatever this was, whatever had happened… sitting here wasn’t an option.