He stood up and opened his closet door to look for his boots but along the way, his eye gets caught by a familiar jar that stood on top of his drawers. It was simple jar that had a wide mouth and a lid with a masking tape label on the side saying, "Broken Dreams"

I remember the time when I made this. Luke helped me get started with it.

We went to the candy store and bought this big jar of candy and ate like kings for the whole afternoon. The jar was what we had left and I didn't want to waste it so I took it home with me.

After a while though, we grew up. Life seemed to be a little heavier and you don't really want to get out of bed anymore since you don’t know what shit can happen. Lots of dreams were starting not to be realized as we faced up to the fact that some things, you aren't meant to do. I guess, I didn't like it at all and Luke noticed. Probably because of Grayson and when he fooled everyone. Especially me, I believed in him the most.

One day when he visited my room, he saw the old jar I kept all these years. It was supposed to be something like a jar for my savings but I didn't like saving money like that. Things seemed too short to save up for, in my opinion.

Luke didn't think so. So he asked permission to use that old candy jar of ours. He took some tape and put the label "Broken Dreams" on it and gave it back to me. At first, I wondered 'what the hell?' I mean, as if I'm not miserable enough right? I thought Luke was making a joke out of my expense or something and I felt insulted really. But then, Luke said something else.

"You put a coin in for every broken dream you have so that in the end, you'll have enough to get yourself the best one"

I was stunned.

The jar was a sentiment. Yeah, Luke understands that some dreams aren't going to come true yet you'll still keep dreaming of something better right?

I think back to that candy-filled afternoon. I remember how long it took to earn that much money to buy it. We had to mow lawns, snip hedges, run errands, etc. We missed out playing in the arcade with others and biking with the other kids because we wanted the best thing out of it. I guess if you think about it, it isn't all that different at all.

Yes, I did have some dreams and hopes shattered and the amount has been going up in that jar for a long time now. For every failure, I put a coin in and for every regret, I put a coin in. In a way, I have learned to move on from mistakes because of this. Never mutter too much in the past but look far ahead into the future instead.

One day though, Luke left and yeah, I gave in to the jar again only this time, I put in a whole mess of coins. Luke just told me that he wants me to keep going after what I want even though I didn't know what it is yet and he told me that jar will help me in the long run.

As I look at the jar now, it's almost full yet I still wonder, have I found the best thing? I haven't yet. I don't know what I want still. So is my time running out or am I just not going to move at all? In a way, I feel like I let Luke down but I'm not quitting, not yet anyway.

He found his old boots and put them on. Jack went to the bottle and opened it. He got a handful of coins and poured them back into the jar, all the while thinking 'when?'. The message he got was probably Luke and what would he say this time? Jack wasn't going anywhere yet, all he had was this big jar of broken dreams.

What started as a sentiment now seemed like a memorial of everything Jack had failed or regretted about.

"I guess, it can't be helped." He looks out the window and sees the rain falling outside, like so many tears. "I'm sorry Luke, I'm not like you"

He places the jar back on the drawer and fishes out another coin from his pocket and drops it in the almost overflowing jar. Jack felt his heart getting heavy as he did, another regret, another broken dream.