The Forest Dream

I was walking, walking in the forest, and I wasn’t sure how I got there. I was just sitting in my office, and all of a sudden, I was in a dark, gloomy forest surrounded by trees and birds chirping. It was nice and melancholy, the type of feeling only a dream could provide.

I mean, I must be dreaming. People don’t just end up in the middle of nowhere, in a place they’ve never seen before. Did I sleepwalk? Was I hallucinating? Was I even alive? I didn’t know what was going on, because just an hour ago, I was in my office downtown filing paperwork. I mean, I hated my job so maybe I fell asleep at my desk.

Anyways, as I’m walking through the forest, an owl starts flying above my head, and I’ve never seen an owl in person before. To be honest, I thought they only existed in Harry Potter. Yet here I was, seeing one for the first time. The owl suddenly landed on the ground next to my feet, and I started to become fearful. I wanted to run.

Then the owl started speaking, and I really knew I was in some kind of screwed up nightmare. I thought, oh no, I must’ve taken the wrong sleeping pills last night or something.

The owl tells me,

“Who are you?”

I blink and say,

“Who am I? Who are you?”

The owl tilts its head and replies,

“I’m asking who you are deep down, not your name.”

I say, my name is Elias. That’s who I am.

The owl shakes its feathers and says,

“That’s your name, but who are you when no one’s watching? Who are you inside?”

I hesitate and finally answer, I don’t know who I am. I’m 25, I work in an office, I live downtown, and my life feels automatic and mundane. Every day is the same thing. Sleep, wake up, work, shower, repeat. There’s no fun, no sense of adventure, just loneliness and bills. But hey, at least I’m successful.

The owl then says, that doesn’t sound like the way to live. So tell me, who do you want to be?

To that, I reply, I want to be free. Free like you, Owl. To go anywhere. To fly.

And the owl asks, so what’s stopping you? What’s stopping you from becoming everything you want to be?

I say, look man, it’s been three years since I’ve dated anyone. I don’t talk to my friends anymore, and I never go out. How is this freedom?

The owl says, maybe you break your routine to free yourself. Deep down, you already know who you want to become and how.

Then the owl disappears like it was never there.

I think, okay, that was weird. I try to wake myself up, but nothing happens. I’m still stuck in this forest, and it seems to be becoming even more vast than before. I was completely lost with no direction, similar to my actual life.

After walking for some time, I heard the trees rustle, and I thought, oh no, what fantasy creature will appear now? Then, to my surprise, I see a fox lurking near the trees.

I think, oh no, is it gonna bite me?

Then I think, aren’t foxes relatively friendly, idiot?

Anyways, the fox runs up to me, and I freeze.

The fox greets me and says, hello Elias, I’ve been waiting to meet you.

I ask, how do you know my name?

The fox doesn’t answer me, but looks me up and down.

The fox proceeds to ask me, what are you doing here?

I say, I have no clue.

Then the fox asks, what’s one thing you need?

To that, I answer, to get the hell out of this forest.

The fox replies, no, what do you need out of life?

And I say, I need more time. I need human connection.

The fox asks, what does time mean to you?

I couldn’t answer that. Then the fox says, maybe it isn’t time, it’s how you use time.

Then he asks, what do you do when you’re not working?

I say, I spend hours on my phone doom scrolling or sleeping, or sitting in a dark room with no one else around.

The fox asks, why don’t you go out more?

I say, what’s the point? No one wants to know me anyways.

To that the fox says, you don’t even know half the people who will love you yet. The future is yours you just don't know it.

I ask the fox, what do you mean?

And the fox replies, life is an unexpected adventure of ups and downs, but doing nothing leads to nothing.

Then, the fox disappears.

Now I think to myself, did I really just talk to a fox and an owl?

I keep walking, and finally I reach a door.

The door is bright and full of light.

There were two paths.

One would let me keep living how I was living.

The other would change everything.

In the real world, I had struggled with depression and anxiety, so change felt unattainable to me. But I remembered what the fox and owl said, so I chose the door that led to change.

After that, I woke up. Face in my coffee at my desk.

I thought, what a dream that was.

But after that moment, I knew I had to live a different life, one with meaning and connection, and I was determined to find it.

After work, I texted an old friend.

“Hey, do you wanna catch up?”

I knew that small step would lead to victory.

Life isn’t always going to be good

But it can always be yours.