We all want to impress.
It feels amazing, that feeling of satisfaction and superiority among others.
It is amazing...
how the amazement of others can change one's self, one's purpose from merely performing modesty to committing actions of selfless pride and jealousy...
How the simple admiration of a crowd can change those who simply mean to attract the acceptance of others, to constantly seeking the amazement of an impressed audience.


But we all love to impress.


It goes back as far as I can remember. I knew him since elementary; the days without worries, cares.
I never worried. I never cared.
The need to impress my surrounding community was never present, to me or anyone I knew. We didn't need it. We didn't want it.
But then again, we were only in elementary school.

He cared though.
Every day, he cared.

Time sometimes has the potency to change everything that is capable of feeling it's murdering touch, but I guess he was invincible to the touch of time, too.

Ten years later, he still cared.

He excelled in everything.
He was in a band, the most talked about one, of course.
School chorus, made it to the state districts every year.
National Honors Society, straight A's, advanced placement classes.
Even head of the track team, machine-like stamina, health of a newborn child.
He had an honest right to impress. He earned it, I suppose.

And then it finally changed, with the help of the turning hands of the clock.
Childish emotions grew with his conscience, not totally escaping his transformation into young adulthood, only evolving.

And impress evolved into brag.

Brag can only impress the willing, the stupid, and the naive-
Those who accept their minimal places in life, their defeat to those who claim themselves superior by means of the 'brag.'


And he bragged.
He bragged about his healthy body.
His musical nature.
His intelligent brain, his muscular arms, his shiny car.



And then he bragged to them.



To those who needed not know-
Who'd rather not hear.
They saw him as only a joke, nothing to become amazed upon.

They knew the rules- that you need not impress, if you are already, quite simply, amazing.


And they beat him.
Beat him to a bloody inch within his life.
And then, when it is highly possible that he had decided to cease his need to impress,
they stole that inch.
They stole his pride, his health, his band.
His grades, his car, his fame.
They stole it all-
They stole his life.









Today's the day.
The most colorless day I've yet seen.
Suited in black tie.
Black shoes.
Everyone's clad in black....
....black...
Even the sky.


















Needless to say, everyone was quite impressed.