It’s Only a Game
Welcome to New York, the city of towering skyscrapers and shattered dreams.
Beneath its dazzling lights and promises of success, life is temporary, monotonous, and suffocating. People come chasing the American dream but often lose themselves in the process. I only realized this when I was on the verge of losing everything—and all because of a game.
I worked for one of the most powerful financial firms in the world. My rise was meteoric, stepping over colleagues as they were ruthlessly cast aside, fired without a second thought. But the higher I climbed, the heavier the weight became. Stress clung to me like a second skin. I tried everything—yoga, clean eating, therapy—but nothing could soothe the growing pressure. So, I turned to smoking, alcohol, and junk food, feeding an endless cycle of self-destruction.
Then, everything crumbled.
At a family gathering, my brother made a shocking announcement: he was resigning as CEO of the largest firm in New Jersey—just two months after his promotion. My parents were livid.
Voices rose, fists slammed against the table, but my brother remained eerily calm. When I asked him later how he had endured the storm of accusations, he simply said, « It’s only a game. »
Days later, my brother took his own life.
The grief shattered my parents. They retreated into themselves, locked away in a prison of silence. They never spoke to me again. Three days after burying my brother, I was fired for a minor mistake. No company wanted to hire a man weighed down by his own failures. I had nowhere to turn, no one left to call.
I climbed to the top of a skyscraper that night. Every step burned, dragging the weight of memories with it. My life flashed before me in fragments of warmth and sorrow. I hesitated. But I knew the world below would crush me if I stayed.I closed my eyes and took the leap.
The wind howled against my skin. My heart pounded. Then—I stopped falling.
A voice whispered, « I told you it was just a game. »
I opened my eyes. I wasn’t plummeting through the abyss. Instead, I was cradled inside an enormous airbag, my brother beside me, alive in a way I hadn’t seen in years.
The company had signed me up for this. A project designed to remind people of life’s beauty when they had lost all hope. And in that moment, I understood.
I am still here. And for the first time, I am truly living.
419 Words