“Ken, time to wake up!” My eyes shot wide awake. The cool flow from the AC was a comfort to my sweating body. I felt empty again.

There I was, back in real life. At least I’m sure it was but for as long as I can remember, I’ve been here far longer than my dream life. It seemed like Hell to me because everything was perfect back there. I have a wife that I love to death, more money than I could ever hope for and kids who look up to me like I’m superman. I would never want anything to change; I’m perfectly content there. But in this one, I needed everything to change. I’d wake up to this place… I had no lover, my family had money issues, I felt alone, and nobody would ever look up to me here. I know nothing is perfect in real life but it sucked so badly. I wish I could have my dream life.

I’d spend a day in dream life, and I’d be back here for an unpredictable amount of time, feeling drained of energy every single day. Sometimes I’d never return to my dream for a day, weeks, even months and one time at an all-time low, I never returned to my dream life for an entire year.

I lacked motivation to change, I wondered if it stemmed from my dream life since I never wanted anything to change. So that’s when I decided today was going to be different. It’s time to take control of my life again and make a change. Maybe shape it up to be like my dream life. But before I do that, I need my daily coffee.

I go downstairs still feeling worn out and groggy. I grab my cup and head upstairs, back into my room; I sit down and switch on my PC to keep up with daily news. The smell of coffee was a true delight, and especially when my room was dimly lit, something about that relaxed me. I think it was because I shut everything on the outside, it was my safe haven. I could ignore everything in here and be alone. But of course my mother hated it, she always kept telling me to “change myself.” That was a little hypocritical because my mother never changed her ways. Well like I said, it’s time to change today and it goes for everyone. I’ve had enough, I know what I want; I love the idea of my dream life so that’s what I’m going to get.

I put my cup down, and head into the living room to see what time it is. 1:30pm. Huh, I woke up late again. That old coo-coo clock always annoyed me, it’s so old and worn out. We keep so much junk in this house; it makes everything so cluttered and ugly. That’s when I decided on what needs to change first, it’s small but simple.

“Mom, why do we keep that old clock? It doesn’t even coo-coo anymore.” I said to my mother. I never had the best relationship to her but maybe we can both agree on something “We can get something better and it looks embarrassing.” She turned to me “Your father gave that to me, it still has some memories…” I couldn’t turn the other cheek, not this time. We need to make a change “Dad left us, and it’s broken. We should change, and I say we start with the old junk weighing us down.” My mother looked at me, she almost looked shocked “Maybe you’re right, son. Fine, throw that clock out. But since I’m doing that, you have to wake up early.” I smiled. Success, I thought to myself. “Okay, fine, I will”

So I took the old clock, threw it away and never looked back. I got on with my daily chores for the rest of the day, which consisted of very mundane tasks, then had dinner and went off to play a few PC games. But as promised, I am to wake up early. I got into bed and closed my eyes, feeling different than usual. The urge of needing to change became really strong, still I drifted off.

I woke up once again, in my same bed as yesterday. Oh well, no dream life today… Still I got up, feeling not as drained as usual. I went to the living room first thing to see if I woke up early. Success again, the clock says 9:20am. I went to my mother’s room to see if I woke up before her, maybe I can surprise her with coffee.

Lo and behold, she was still asleep. I’ll admit, it felt good to feel like a winner. I was about to head to the kitchen until I glanced at the clock again. I sighed and muttered “We should really get rid of that clock.”

But wait, didn’t I throw that out yesterday? Unless my mother dug it out of the trash can. “I’ll never get out of here” I said to myself. I fought with feeling too disappointed or even annoyed. No I know I did, I remember the garbage truck taking it along with them. That’s when I decided to change, I promised myself. I know I can change.

Then I remembered everything, reality kicked in as the walls began to physically melt around me. I was never happy there; I was only in love with the idea while I was here. I lied to myself… My wife never loved me no matter how much I loved her, my kids only looked up to me because I had money. I stumbled into my room, my only safe haven. I can shut everything out, this isn’t happening. I can ignore it. I can fight this.

I almost didn’t see him, but the ray of light hit his face clear as day. I slowly realized I saw myself sitting on my bed, old and grey. My face wrinkled and miserable. I saw myself open my mouth and a puff of fog left my cold face as I said “Ken, time to wake up.”