What is your take on “life”? Would you change it, keep it the same, what is it?

“’Life?’ Is this where I try to spew deep, philosophical thought? Life is living. Life is something you and everyone else go through. In all honesty, I really don’t think life is any that special. Can’t we just take it as it is? I guess it’d be cool to have done something great in your life. Though if you ask me, most people don’t lead lives like that, unfortunately. Would I change it? Sure, why not? That’d be nice. But, I don’t know, beyond that initial thought, I’m not sure what I else I want from life.” . . .

That was the response which got him the job. Apparently his employers had seen in his answer some kind of deep potential or something. But honestly, there really wasn’t anything deep beyond what he had written on the page. He had answered the question with whatever words had come to his mind—which, on that day, had been extremely exhausted and aloof—and any “deeper” meaning would not have been written not on purpose and therefore was complete bull.

He had just graduated from four painstaking years of college which, he felt, was some kind of an useless interlude of his life. He had entered college as a math major—something he chose by literally closing his eyes and pointing—before switching to biology. After that didn’t work out, he tried a few classes in industrial engineering until somehow ending up with a degree in screenwriting.

He had applied for the job out of a whim of boredom and by some of weird luck—or rather, accident, because he didn’t believe in luck—he actually got it, two months before his graduation, to boot.

It was ironic that he, who led such a mundane and vivaciously dull life, would be the one writing about the vigorously dramatic and eventful lives of others. And apparently he did it well, too, or so the professors say. Maybe the reason why he was able to write such loaded and fulfilling scripts was because he boxed into his stories all the things that his own life lacked—which meant it was boring and lacking a lot.

Currently, he had already started to work part-time for the hiring company while finishing up the last few months of his degree—because why not? Might as well make some extra cash to boot because his parents sure weren’t letting him crawl back home like a sack of potatoes after college. So, today, he had walked himself out to his favorite corner coffee shop to finish up on his latest assigned work project.

He entered the shop to the familiar scented swirls of coffee and tea. It was a small, dingy place which never hosted more than three or four visitants at a time, and was built all with a very dark shade of wood which made the place feel uninvitingly drab and somber. But he liked it. The solitude and stillness allowed him both comfort and productiveness.

After ordering one of the few usual cups, he settled down at the two-person table beside the window and flopped open the script packet he had been assigned. One look at it and he sighed. It was editing. While he found his profession actually relatively interesting, editing was his least favorite part of the job. Writing the script yourself was much more worthwhile. He enjoyed the process of creation and control. Having to dissect someone else’s pre-written work, however, was just torturous. Nevertheless, it was an unavoidable part of the job. He rolled up his sleeves, uncapped his pen, hunched over the papers, and began to scrutinize the pages.

After some couple of hours, he reached the end and saw that the instructions showed that he was to pick up where the script left off and continue the story as per his own discretion. He smiled at this and his heart swelled at such a rewarding end to an editing assignment. He straightened up in his seat and directed his thoughts to outside the window. Indeed, this was his favorite spot in the coffee shop because he was able to observe the going-ons of the small side street outside and, best of all, no one ever looked in to see him lurking there, in the corner behind the grimy window of the forsaken coffee shop. It was the best place to generate imaginations.