You are at the starting line. Your heart beats a mile a minute. Your mind goes back to the day you agreed to participate in a half-marathon with a coworker of yours. What were you thinking? Stupid. So stupid. You are not even sure if you can hold on for half that. All because you just let yourself get carried by the conversation.
And then you spent so much time thinking about that promise that when the fateful day arrived, you had not done anything to fix it.
Why are you here? An inner voice mocks you, jeers, accompanied by the echoes of the words you said on that day. The road ahead stretches into infinity. The crowds tower above you.
Suddenly, the signal.
Hmm. Maybe this is the wrong story. Maybe you are at an entrance exam, and a few early questions have thrown you off your balance. You feel like you’ve been punched in the gut. You’re tilting. You just want to disappear and lie in your bed forever. But if you do that, you’ll never be able to get your life in order. And so, distracted by these thoughts, you jump from question to question, desperate to get a grip.
Or maybe you haven't been honest with a friend. They haven't sussed it out, but now distance grows between the two of you. You would hate to see this friendship go away, but you don’t even know how to start a conversation anymore. So, you end up imagining pretend conversations that never happen. And a sinking feeling in your chest grows stronger each day.
You find yourself overwhelmed by problems of your creation. And while you're not alone in this situation, of course, that's small comfort at the moment.