“School Eh?, what a pain” I say to myself as I grab tightly onto the metal handrail of the third floor of my apartment and jump propelling my entire body midair. The wind harshly running against my face while I’m rapidly falling is always exhilarating while I’m pulling off these types of stunts. I finally feel my feet make contact with the pavement as a huge thud noise echoes around my vaccinity. I managed to leave with *less* pain in my feet than usual. I brush off the pain and start to make my way across the sidewalk that leads most of the way to school.

After arriving at my school building I sat down in my seat to begin the day's typical fair of standard education. Peering over my shoulder I could catch students giving me my usual set of peculiar gazes due to my equally unusual getup. I get it, I’m a weird person with weird interests and am not afraid to express it. This outward appearance is the main reason that most people who would have otherwise considered striking a conversation with me in hopes of starting a friendship instead tend to seamlessly avoid me in the halls. That being said though, that doesn't mean that I’m completely unapproachable, Take for example my friend Daichi Sato.

He’s quite a bit taller than me, has fairly tanned skin, and has a set of deep black eyes. While that body type may sound somewhat intimidating, in reality he’s about as casual as they get and he makes a point about it too. He’s almost always wearing one of his plaid flannel shirts and rarely ever buttons it. At first this sense of fashion may sound very bizarre but it oddly suits him.

That being said, he immediately barged into my classroom with no warning.

“Ahem, May your class please excuse me for a few seconds, I have some business that I must attend to that requires the assistance of a person currently in this classroom!” Daichi shouted loudly.

“Yes that will be acceptable, But if I were to ask, What does this ‘Business’ entail?”

I silently put my head down on my desk in fear that Daichi was up to his usual nonsense.

“Due to matters that have risen within the chess club, My friend Maya will be required to attend an unexpected meeting in the club room, sorry for any inconvenience”

My worst suspicions have come true. While a claim such as this may seem solid at face value I could see directly through whatever Daichi was scheming. The reason being, I’ve never joined the chess club. That being said though, nobody in the room but me and Daichi could sense any form of suspicion and therefore . . .

“I suppose if it’s for club activities it cannot be helped, Your lucky the meeting is taking place now, so Maya shouldn't miss much, go along now”

I dug my head out of my arms and started walking towards Daichi to see what he was planning. After all, in my mind anything was better than sitting through the rest of class.

“Follow me”, I hear him whisper into my ear. We make our way down a series of halls before he finally comes to a stop and signals me to sit down with him. The place he brought me to was very odd, almost as if he was intending for us to do something relatively discreetly.

Daichi led me to the corner of a seemingly random hallway in the school next to a restroom that rarely sees any use. By all means he led me to the most run down and least used corner of my school building.

“Listen man, Earlier today while sitting in class letting my mind wander I had a thought, It’s pretty out of left field though, so please Just hear me out. I was sifting through my mind's catalogue of this world's seemingly unanswerable questions and landed on the ever so asked ‘What is the meaning of life?’. At Least from my perspective this question has always been redundant. This is because while our society flourished by the gift of life which has been creating many purposes for itself, life itself was never designed or planned. Yes, The designs and many functions of our bodies for example have conformed to the seemingly optimal design that we see in our present day. But while these are ‘designs’ they were never truly designed by someone but are rather a product of natural selection, We all know this . . . Or at least I hope. Though, it’s not only that. On a personal level you can give life new meaning. Seeing as you live life confined within your own phaneron it’s truly your world and nobody else’s. And with this philosophy then and only then you can give life a meaning. What that meaning is is completely up to the individual”

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

Surprisingly Daichi was making a lot of solid points, Or at last he sounded like he knew what he was talking about. I’ve never heard Daichi talk in such an informal manner before though this may just be a result of him having plenty of time to create this thought in class and he’s getting it all out now. I sat there in silence as he continued.

“This philosophy raises a multitude of questions about the way that we live our lives. Think about it, Don’t you want to live life as if it were an adventure where you were the main character? Meeting new friends and living life knowing that each day holds a story worth reciting to your children once you grow too old to live life as you once did. Though a simple glance at our modern society shows that nearly everyone lives the exact opposite of what I just described. An office worker will tiredly trudge out of his bed at the sound of his alarm with barely enough sleep to feel ready for a day's challenges. Upon arriving at his job he will work nonstop for a significant portion of the rest of the day. He will then trudge back home defeated with his only desire being to collapse back onto his bed only to let the cycle repeat. He will be trapped in this cycle for the next few decades before inevitably retiring. But at that point his age and lack of youthful energy will wear him down to the point where he can never live a truly free life.”

“What Kind of life is that to live?”

While sitting cross legged on the floor I batted my eyes around to see if anyone was peering in on this bizarre conversation in an even more bizarre place. Without context we likely looked very suspicious sitting in a place like this. But luckily nobody was listening in on us. Now that I think of it Daichi has been going on for a while now with no clear point but Before I could ask why, he made his point clear.

“Here’s what I’m getting at. In reality My metaphor surrounding this ‘office worker’ is not at all unlike the lives that we are leading at this very moment. While the both of us do not work for any companies as of now, We do attend school. Which at this age is a very close equivalent.”

At this point I’m fully concentrating on what Daichi has to say. I’ll give him this, The concepts that he was laying out were quite fascinating but also somewhat ridiculous at the same time. Was he implying that we ditch school not for the day but for life? And to get away with that wouldn’t we have to abandon life as we’ve known it for the past sixteen or so years?

“Sorry for choosing such an inconvenient spot to discuss this, It was a spur of the moment thing. Follow me!”

Daichi said surprisingly calmly considering the scene that just transpired.

Daichi led me well outside the boundaries of the school and through our town as he showed me to a local park. We both sat down on a bench near the perimeter of the playground area and stared into the distance for a short while taking in everything that just happened. In all honesty the pure ambiance of the situation nearly had me forget the reason that I was there. It wasn’t only the feeling of ditching school either. The day was soothingly calm with a light breeze rushing through the air with some welcomed shade from a nearby tree overhanging the bench. Soon enough though I snapped out of this daze and resumed talking.

“If you brought me all the way out here I’d assume that you don’t intend for us to return to school, Am I right?”

“Yes, that is correct. Not now, or ever. I’m not pressuring you to go along with me on this one. In fact I recommend that you return to the school and play this off as a meeting that you had with the chess club. Then, maybe forget about this for me . . . Or even, Forget about me.

Daichi continued in a rather remoresul tone.

“I don’t know how to feel about this either, But I’ve had similar thoughts to the ones that you’ve just recently shared with me. But in my case It’s been more so a hatred towards the soullessness of our society. Walking outside you can see countless adverts promoting a slew of non essential and frankly useless brands. Brands that don’t care in the slightest about the consumer but rather profit. If I were in the shoes of someone in this world with the power to govern . . . I feel as if our society would have a lot more collective joy.”

After a long silence I hear a response that baffled me

“Who says you can’t?”

I turn my head to Daichi, confused but also somewhat intrigued.

“Ambitions are a truly bizarre thing. A person should be able to accomplish anything as long as they put their heart into it. Phrases similar to that have been tossed around at children since childhood and because of that seem to have lost all meaning. But I assure that once put into action these philosophies hold some validity.

“What are you getting at?”

“What I’m saying is that if changing the world for the better is your goal then it isn't impossible. We’ll just have to take this step by step . . .”

“And I know just where to Start”

To be continued . . .