No Control

Realization

   At some point in life, we have to wake up from our delusions and face life head-on. We tend to avoid our fears and problems, hoping that a miracle will happen. We hope the situation will handle itself so we don't have to. When in reality, the choice is left up to us. Do we sit back and hope things will get better, or should we take matters into our own hands? When starting his freshman year, Jay's mature mind led him towards building success. He wanted to make money, to help his family, do nice things for them, and, of course, treat himself handsomely. Every time he had an idea, someone tried to stop him from pursuing it. His parents would tell him, "You're too young to be worried about money. Focus on school and your sports."
   Jay had plans about how he could make money, but every idea was dismissed, and he was told the same thing. Jay was always humble and respectful, so he felt guilt and burdened to ask his parents or anyone for anything. He wanted to make his own money and not rely on others. But he continued to think to himself, "How am I supposed to make my own moves and do good for myself when I can't even decide for myself? When will the choice ever be mine to make?". Once Jay thought about it, he never really had a say in anything. The choice was always chosen for him instead of him having his own input. When he started to think about how he never had a say, he started to get mildly irritated. This was the start of Jay's mentally unstable nature.
   Jay truly understood what he desired most in life. He wanted power to become far beyond what he was then. Jay knew he didn't have much in his current position. He wasn't popular, didn't have money, nerdy, quiet, reserved. Almost everything about him screamed unattractive. He knew he had to let go and break free of old habits in order to get, so much as a taste of true freedom, of power. Contemplating his next moves carefully, Jay thought of the perfect idea, a way to kill two birds with one stone. Jay had the idea to sell snacks at school. Sure, it seemed like a simple uncommon idea for most teenagers, but to Jay, this was a golden opportunity.
   With a carefully thought-out and detailed plan, Jay decided to set his plan into motion as shown.

Step One: In order to convince his parents that this idea would work, he would have to create a compelling argument to his parents. He went to his parents and told them he had saved up enough money for a reasonable supply of snacks to sell at school. He went into great detail and gave them the logistics of his plan and how it would help benefit him. The first phase was to tell his parents the things they wanted to hear rather than his wants. How could this help him understand finance, business, and building social skills. The idea was to make the plan sound sweet and make sure it sticked, to at least have a chance of them considering the idea. One of the questions his parents asked him before giving him the opportunity was how the staff was going to react. The most obvious choice he had was to keep it secret, to ensure he was able to sell undetected. Like most secrets, what's in the dark eventually comes to light.

Step Two: Once his parents approved, he had to wait until the weekend to get his supplies. Until then, Jay spoke with his friends to spread the word secretly to other students around the school that he was going to start selling snacks. He knew maybe only a few people would buy from him, and it'd be a slow and patient process. Once he had his supplies, business dragged the first week, but he just didn't know how quickly that was about to change. By the second week, demand was extremely high. Every day before class started, Jay had sold out and made his money for the day. Demand was so high that he had to break his supply down into separate  days so he wouldn't sell out completely and wait for a resupply.

Step Three: The plan was running smoothly so far. Jay started to earn profit, had no issues, and broadened his horizon. He had the students and teachers buying from him, and they kept coming back the very next day. Eventually, word got to the principle and Jay started to feel a little pressured but remained calmed. With all the attention on him, Jay started to stick out more, and now he needed to smooth talk his way out of the situation. With Jay taking initiative and making his own choices, he got out of the current situation. Jay had already planned for the principal to find out, and once he made it to that phase of the plan, he swiftly avoided his problem and continued selling. Now, with phase three out of the way, Jay could walk through the school doors, a duffel bag filled with snacks, and security let him through as if nothing was wrong.

   Everything was starting to fall in place for Jay just as he planned. Jay started to make his own money, and his popularity started growing not only in his grade but throughout the whole high school. He started to become a bit more social as well. Jay was starting to change, and he could tell that even if he was just gradually changing, he still was proud that he was becoming a better version of himself. Of course, when you're winning in life, there is always something or someone that will attempt to drag you down. To slow down or stop you momentum to completely throw you off your game.
    If we were to take lessons from this, this would be one of the most vital aspects we need in our lives. We need to always be vigilant and ready for life when we are following our goals and desires. We must be aware of what's coming and plan ahead in time. Staying comfortable or relaxing for too long could lead to your downfall and put you into a tough position to climb your way out of. Jay already knew how his parents would react, how the principle would react, and took every other possible setback into consideration. He always stayed two or more steps ahead and handled the situation he saw fit. Jay was starting to learn a lot and learned about the things he could do when he started to make his own decisions. Though the next choice he made determined if he was ready to let go of his burden of a habit or destroy what he was in the process of building.