Chapter 1 To Survive
Alina sighed as she lay on her bed, staring blankly at the ceiling. Her thoughts wandered in circles..quiet, heavy, and restless.
"When will I get a stable job?"
"When will I finally have enough money?"
"Where... when... how...?"
That’s all her overthinking brain could summon.
After graduating with a degree in Early Childhood Education, she had imagined a simple, peaceful life. A steady job, her own apartment, warm meals at the end of the day. But instead, it had been three long months of rejection emails, unanswered applications, and empty interviews.
To keep up with rent, she worked wherever she could...sometimes as a waitress, other times scrubbing floors in cafes that didn’t even remember her name.
Lying there, tired and half-heartedly clutching her old graduation certificate, she whispered to herself,
"I gave half my life to studying. Was it all for nothing? Was dreaming of something better... too much to ask?"
She closed her eyes, not to sleep, but to escape. Just for a moment.
However, the stress in her chest and the constant migraine behind her eyes made it hard to rest. Even her thoughts felt tired.
To save money, she kept the lights off unless truly needed. She counted every minute the fan ran, every drop of water used, every bulb switched on. Even small comforts felt like luxuries now.