Write Drunk, Edit Sober
Picture this. It’s 2002. You went to the Scholastic book fair earlier tht day and rode the bus home to an empty house. You sit on the floor in front of your huge, 20 inch box TV and switch it to channel 3. Your favorite Nickelodeon sketch comedy, All That, is about to start. Life is good.
Jeston is a former student of Texas A&M, the author of Jesse Granger: Bushranger in Hit the Ground Running, and a volunteer at the Cameron Park Zoo in Waco, TX.
Therefore I will give thanks unto thee, O Lord, among the heathen, and I will sing praises unto thy name.
2 Samuel 22:50
The following is a story I wrote while I was in college. It was intended to be part of a little book about my college life I was going to give to my little brother so he sort of knew what to expect when he got there. But nothing in my life has ever been typical and my experiences varied wildly from what others probably experienced. So I never finished the book. He’s still writing his own story which is filled with just as much happiness and misery as my own but at the time I didn’t think he’d be able to relate. Here’s one story that survived that I think everyone can relate to, though. Please feel free to cringe as you read.
Jeston is a former student of Texas A&M, the author of Jesse Granger: Bushranger in Hit the Ground Running, and a volunteer at the Cameron Park Zoo in Waco, TX.
For some people, Valentine’s day is a happy day filled with love and gifts. For the rest of us, it’s just another reminder that out lonely lives are one day closer to their lonely ends. We wake up to no new texts, no flowers or cards or whatever, nothing. We have to watch our coworkers get gifts and singing grams delivered and pretend to be happy for them. We have to pretend “Galentine’s Day” and “Singles Awareness Day” are funny jokes. It sucks.
Apparently it’s not any better in the animal world.
When betta fish want to mate, they make a nest of bubble and then the female swims through it and gets pregnant or something like that. Well when I got into work today, i saw the saddest thing. I guess The Real Swim Shady knew it was Valentine’s Day and thought he could get himself a mate. Around the edges of his bowl were frothy bubble nests. I didn;t have the heart to tell him he’d be alone for what is probably his first and last (hopefully not last) Valentine’s Day on this earth. He just keeps swimming around longingly.
It’s ok, little buddy. I’ve spent 23 of them alone. Hopefully you do die actually because it never sucks any less.
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Jeston is a former student of Texas A&M, the author of Jesse Granger: Bushranger in Hit the Ground Running, and a volunteer at the Cameron Park Zoo in Waco, TX.