Ana
It was one of these confused days for Ana. She wasn’t able to decide if she wanted cappuccino or espresso. She wasn’t able to decide what to wear- black, white-or maybe red…no definitely not red, because she didn’t have any red clothes. Did she want to go to work by car, or by train? Did she want to attend the party in the evening or to stay at home? Unable to feel what was that she wanted, Ana had a cup of tea, picked her blue dress and walked to her office. On her way there she thought:“What do I need? Why it is so hard to decide?”.
As she was walking, the answer appeared in front of her- Henry’s book store. She walked in and decisively went to the self-help books section. “10 ways to get what you want”- was one of the titles she spotted. “Pointless- she thought- why reading how to get what I want, when I don’t know what that is…?”. “Discover the perfect happiness” was another title, which made Ana think of something she've heard: “If someone talks about happiness, he’s trying to sell you something”. “The road to success”- Ana got that book and turned it to the last 120-th page. “it seems like the road to success is too short”-she thought and stopped reading the titles for a moment. She looked at the vast shelves full of books. Did they contain the answers to her questions?
In a confused day like this one, she couldn’t answer that question. But she was determined to find out and she got the most suitable title- “Discover your needs”. Ana read the first two reviews- “Amazing book! Exactly what you need to discover your needs”; “Great life-changing book!”- and she thought…”Here’s a great opportunity to change my life for $19.99 only”. She got the book and went to work. The feeling of confusion remained the whole day, but she got the sense of hope consisting of the 275 pages that she had hidden in her bag. She went home that evening and read the whole book- it was interestingly written, full of good advices and it kept her nodding and agreeing. “Live your amazing day today”-she read the last sentence and closed the book. The next day, Ana started following the good advices. After all the best-selling psychologist who wrote it must know better…
Two months later…
Ana’s life was back to what it was BBSB- before the bestselling book. She had read so many good advices, and moreover-she had followed them. Then why on Earth was she confused again? She turned on the TV. A cheap margarine commercial was running. A happy family gathered for breakfast- everybody smiling and excited for having healthy toasts with margarine, eggs and orange juice. This commercial reminded her of the good advices- good in theory, but what happens in practice? “Did people even have the time to have their morning coffee together, before rushing to work?”- Ana thought. Furthermore, in the commercial the ideal scene was played by actors- they’ve created the illusion, but did those actors have breakfasts like that in their real life? Is this Mr. best-selling psychologist aware of his own needs to give advices to the world, or was he simply presenting an ideal scene, just like those actors? Ana decided to leave all these questions behind and get some work done. She checked her calendar that contained different quotations for every day of the year. It was 13 of June and the quote of the day was: “Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes. ”. Ana smiled, threw away the self-help book, and looked herself in the mirror.
