Two Beers Is All It Takes

1 - It's nice to meet you.

"Dear Finn,

You have been highlighted by your lecturers as an active student and thus, we are pleased to invite you to participate as an internal contributor in the evaluation of the Design & Advertising programme, which will take place on the 20th of August 2021 on Campus UTB East, room E2.68.
 
Besides you, one other student, from the International programme, is attending. Attached you will find the topics that will be discussed during the meetings. The schedule for the day is as follows:
[...]"

"I was recommended by the teachers?" Finn thought, "I guess the other people they invited before me said no."

Confused and slightly honored, Finn accepted the invitation and saved the date in his calendar.

He was not exactly an academic person, but the boredom that came with summer break made him wish the last 2 weeks of August had been over already.

Moving out was tough, especially when you liked living with your family.

He had stayed at home, gotten a job as an Assistant Chef at a restaurant in his small hometown. Life had been great. He'd worked 16:00-24:00 shifts Wednesday to Sunday and had gotten to spend time with his girlfriend, who was 1 year younger than him.

However, when most of his friends had started talking about moving out and applying to universities, he'd suddenly realized that the dreams his friends had weren't the same as his own.

Honorable careers. Traveling. Studying. Figuring out their place in the world. Excelling... Those weren't the things he dreamed of at night. Those weren't the things that excited his heart.

He wanted an entirely different life. A calm and simple one. He wanted to make enough money to be comfortable. He wanted to buy a house. Buy a car. Settle down near the beach, stay close to his family.

He dreamed of being a father more than anything in his life.

Seeing his mini-me running around.

Raising them to be better than him.

Growing old with them.

Witnessing their first steps, their first scraped knee, their first baby tooth falling out.

Just thinking about it made his heart warm.

Apparently, his girlfriend didn't share his hopes and dreams, however.

"Are you out of your mind? We just graduated, for fuck's sake!" She'd nearly screamed at him when he'd brought up the topic of kids.

Truthfully, they should've probably had talked about it before they dated for 3 years. But they had been 16 when they'd started dating. Kids aren't something that kids plan for.

But Finn knew, even back then, probably his whole conscious life, he knew that being a father would be his greatest accomplishment.

Needless to say, they broke up. She broke up with him.

"If children are your biggest dream, you're a lot more narrow-minded than I thought. This is not a life, it's a miserable existence. I can't be with someone who has virtually no hopes or plans for the future."

"I've been caged in this town, with the same people all my life. I want to go out there! See something other than this sea and this fjord." She had not been trying not to hurt him, he could tell, but her words had stung deeper than he would've liked to admit. Even to himself.

It was clear as day that they couldn't have had their happily ever after. Finn was a dreamer, an optimist, but he wasn't blind.