by
Mr-Malark
@ 15 Aug. 2008 - 12:00:12 am
I ran the tips of my fingers along the wood panelling on the wall. It was bijou alright. But it was mine, finally, all mine.
I had travelled a long way to reach this point.
It now seems a lifetime away but I recognise that my initial procrastination had cost me dear. When my peers were buying homes, I had stood cautiously by. There was no rush. However, even as prices had begun to rise, I consciously chose to hold firm. After all, prices would soon equalise and, maybe then, I would decide to buy my first property. But they never did. In fact, the rate of rise began to increase. The market began to rocket.
And, all of a sudden, I couldn’t catch it. I had left it too late and, dumbfounded at my critical error of judgement, had to watch it recede into the distance.
I began to sink into a deep depression. I had missed the boat that had taken all my peers into lives of relative prosperity and, indeed, multi-property ownership. And I couldn’t let it go.
My bitterness turned to ugly, outright resentment and, over time, I slowly drove all my friends away. I found myself wishing the gravest ill on the property market and all who had benefited from its unfair and arbitrary vagaries.
I deserved some of that luck. I deserved it.
One morning though, on a bright, fresh summer’s day, I woke up and realised that, sometimes, you have to get busy living or get busy dying. And, with a clear mind, I finally plucked up the courage to make that jump.
It was like a great weight had been lifted. Once I had decided to get on the ladder, all that anxiety, the resentment, the anger, suddenly disappeared. My mind was set. I’d start with the first rung and climb as high and quickly as I could, and dammit to everyone, I was going to reach the top.
And that is pretty much my story.
And the end? Well, wouldn’t you believe it, here we are now and I’ve finally got my own lovely, little place, decorated throughout in velvety blue cushions that pad the floor and embroider the ceiling, and situated on a gorgeous, secluded plot of land.
Sure, it’s a little cramped and let’s just say I won’t be swinging anything in here, least of all a cat, but it’s all mine. And, yes, it did cost me an arm and a leg, and, indeed, a spine, a neck and all of my teeth, but I can live with that, figuratively speaking.
Still, it’s a shame so much of me had to be hosed off the pavement where I landed. I just hope the rest of me, wherever it is, is happy.