Left out of reality

Have you ever wondered what it's like to be the child of a famous actor? Someone is always in the media’s eyes. Those kids you don’t care about but end up hearing about their life because of some news channel with no actual news and some journalists with no actual content. We usually hate these kids, why well because we think that they got everything that they have from their parents and this presence and attention feel unjustified. But what happens if you are in that position. What if you are the child that always has the camera on them.

Everything you do is seen and analysed but you also have everything that every kid wants. John was confused by the life that he had been given His dad was a large businessman in the state of Florida. Every hotel in Miami knew his dad by his first name. His mother was the greatest tennis player of all time often hailed and remembered at Wimbledon. John wasn’t like that though. He didn’t always want the biggest house or the best hotel suite. He accepted it but would often imagine his life was not the way it was.

Instead of a bigger TV, he wished his parents were home more. Instead of an expensive toy, he wished his friends didn’t act weird when they met him. Instead of getting into college because of his dad, he wanted to go to community college just to do it himself. He still took the university his dad got him, well because it wasn’t a choice that he got. He imagined a life where he would walk down the street and people would not know it was him. Be able to take the metro even if it took longer than his car.

He thought that university would be his breakout, that he would be able to have a separate life but that wasn’t the case. Everyone there knew who he was and knew that his father put him there. Hence he had no respect yet still so much of it. It bothered him greatly. He would put his hands into fists so hard that his palms would bleed. His interactions with everyone were so boring and they always asked the same thing. “what was living with your parents like?” he was so fed up with this question that when people asked him his eyes would turn read almost unintentionally.

He lived in his apartment alone because everyone wanted to be his roommate. Because why would you not want to be roommates with the guy with the best house. Most nights it would just be him alone in his house. No one around, no calls, no texts. That’s what he hated most. No matter what they said to him outside, when he came back home there were no words said to him at all. He would completely trash his house. Throw things out of place. Break cutlery, anything. Just to get himself to stay with himself any longer.

He decided to take a chance one night. He went out, with no car, no security. Just him in the streets of the city. A city where everyone was bound to know, who he was. A city where he never found a way to fit in other than to stay away. He walked alone, he skipped almost. It looked like nobody seemed to know him. Until they did. The swarm came, like bees to a hive, like insects to fallen food, like sharks to blood. A crowd formed within 5 minutes with no understanding of why he was just out like this.

He let the crowd consume him. Just laid down on the ground. He realised that as much as he hated being recognised he was used to it. He wanted the eyes. And the real reason he was so angry was that he could never embrace it. That he could never accept his life. He decided that day he would do it. Take control. Let himself live among those that want to be around him.