I wake, slamming my hand on my snooze button… only to remember I use my cell phone to wake up and I have just whacked it silly.  I sigh, still exhausted from my dull, repetitive life of work, eat, sleep, repeat.

My amber eyes brighten as I remember, today is different.  Today, I have the day off!  Today I… oh, yeah.  Today is test day.  I sigh again, my moment of bliss flying away as if it had never existed.  Walking out of my bedroom and into the carpeted cat-hair infested hallway, I turn into the small bathroom and flip on the light, a single bulb without a cover.  In the shower, I let the warm water wash away the remnants of sleep and reminisce about my childhood.  Oh, how I wished I was older.  Why is it that humans are never satisfied with what they have?  Why does the grass always seem greener on the other side?

I get dressed and skip downstairs to steal a bit of breakfast before heading out the door.  I turn on my car, the radio blaring.  A song lyric attracts my attention as I latch my seat belt.  Oh, if we could only catch a midnight train and start over somewhere else.

Too bad life isn’t that easy.

I approach the test center and turn into the parking ramp.  My car fitting into the first space I see, with room to spare.  Getting out of my silver compact car, I take only my essentials with me: license, credit card, sweater, car keys, and a bottle of Cherry Coke.  Slamming my car door, I look at the test center ahead of me and hope for the ability to achieve a score high enough to change my life.