A young man wakes up from his slumber, puts on his clothes and heads to the plaza, he was awoken by a telepathic message about a special announcement. It has been twenty days of travel since he left Earth, he arrives to the meeting spot and waits for a while until enough people arrive.

He observes the fuzzy, turbulent pattern of stars in front of him, the vessel is still in faster-than-light travel, he ponders his future; he is alone, no friends, acquaintances or family around him, all of them decided to bear a forlorn existence on a bleak planet, they challenged his decision to leave but he never relented, he pulls a small photograph of his parents, giving it a stoic gaze…

“Are they mom and dad? They look good,” says a senior man, commenting out of the blue about the photo.

The lad maintains his gaze on the picture, then he crumples it bitterly. “They are no longer my parents.” he says flatly.

The senior man is surprised by such a reaction, but he decides to inquire about his judgment without prejudice. “Why is that, youngster? Are they not here?”

He tosses the picture softly to the side, keeping his glare focused on the stars. “They are not, but that’s not the only reason why I am estranged from them… they failed me as parents when I was a kid, all the way up to the end of my adolescence, all that verbal and emotional abuse back then…” He looks at the senior man. “It caused me severe trauma, that explains why I had an isolated and woeful life, the complete opposite of the exciting experience I wanted in my twenties. Like how every social media outlet portrayed it, or those people who always tell their stories about how amazing their lives were in their prime years, but for me…” he says, wiping away a small tear in his right eye before he continues. “I never had that chance, those ten years went to the sewage and they won’t return.” he says, pausing.

The senior man contemplates his story thoughtfully, then he responds kindly.

“Your anger is understandable, youngster, there are circumstances in life we can’t control, but… there is something special that is under your control and no one can take it from you.”

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“Like what?” he responds, he expects a wishful-thinking type of response, one that surely will not help him.

“Your free will.” says the senior man with conviction.

The lad is somewhat confused about the answer. “What do you mean by that?”

“Your parents are no longer here, neither your friends or anyone you know, it seems, you have an opportunity to start with a clean slate, you may have lost your twenties but that doesn’t mean anything, you are still young, what really matters now is what you are going to do from now on. You can start by working through the trauma caused by the negligence of your parents; it wasn’t your fault son, so you can stop being so hard on yourself about an occurrence that you didn’t choose.”

The lad remains silent for a moment, trying to comprehend what he is saying. “I… I’m not sure what can I do.”

“Baby steps, chap, baby steps, there is no hurry, first, go to the medical center here and try to find any resources, there you can find tools for your recovery, but always remember this: those are ONLY tools, the only true way to heal your wounds is by yourself; the legwork and effort is only up to you.”

He remains silent again but only for a moment, then he replies. “Is it too late to start from scratch?”

The senior man humbly chuckles. “Son, I have like fifteen or twenty years of life remaining after receiving treatment here, if I thought it was too late for me to start a new life then I would have remained back on Earth to spend the rest of my short time there if I survive long enough; it’s never too late to begin anew.”

“I think I understand now…” says the young man.

“I’m glad to hear that, before I go I want to share a last bit of help, if you don’t want to forgive your parents that’s ok, but make peace within; let it go, you are no longer attached to them, then you can start focusing on improving yourself.” says the senior man, taking his leave.

The lad remains calm and introspective, his contempt wasn’t helping, only causing unnecessary suffering like a vicious circle. As he is starting to manage to put the pieces together, suddenly the blurred stars in front of him shift into a revelation of a new planet, his new home. Fairly bigger than Earth, three natural satellites, he then receives mental images about how it looks like, a large, fertile world with magnificent and wondrous biomes and ecosystems, the people around him cheer and celebrate, excited to be settlers. He quickly walks around the crowd to retrieve the crumpled picture and puts it inside his pocket, but without giving a thought about his parents, he now manages to easily clear his mind.

“The old gentleman might be right, now I can stop surviving and from now on… thrive,” thinks the young lad, he goes straight to the medical complex to find his tools and resources to sort out his issues. He is aware it won’t be easy but now he is more confident to have a fresh start in the new homeworld.