Story No. 5 – What Really Matters in Life
There are experiences that change you forever.
They break you, yes — but in doing so, they reveal.
Once the noise, the illusions, the excess are stripped away — only the essential remains.
And then, almost suddenly, you see it.
You realize that the true value of things has nothing to do with what you had been chasing.
You understand that many certainties were just conventions,
and that many of your goals were, in truth, never really yours.
And then it becomes clear.
You understand that what truly matters is being able to spend time with your children.
Being with them. Doing things together.
Hearing their voices, feeling their presence.
It’s all there.
In a gesture, a laugh, a caress given or missed.
That is what I expect from life. That is the heart of everything.
And that is what I fight for.
Not to regain a status.
Not to prove anything.
But simply to be there again, beside them.
When that desire becomes almost unreachable,
it becomes even clearer.
It becomes absolute. Undeniable.
And then you realize another truth:
this society does everything it can to pull you away from what is real.
It distracts you, confuses you, seduces you with what sparkles.
It teaches you to desire what you don’t need
and to forget what defines you.
But today, I know.
I know that real value cannot be measured.
It cannot be shown off.
It can only be lived.
Protected.
And often, reclaimed.
Through struggle.