She reached her goal, exhausted.

Even more chilling to her was that the euphoria

that she thought she'd feel upon reaching it wasn't there. Something wasn't right.
Was this the only feeling she'd have for over five years of hard work?
Her mom had warned her. She had been warned time and again, but she had refused to
believe her. She had done everything right and she knew she would be rewarded for
doing so with the promotion. So when the promotion was given to her main rival, it
not only stung, it threw her belief system into disarray. It was her first big
lesson in life, but not the last.
She didn't understand how changed worked. When she looked at today compared to
yesterday, there was nothing that she could see that was different. Yet, when she
looked at today compared to last year, she couldn't see how anything was ever the
same.
One dollar and eighty-seven cents. That was all. And sixty cents of it was in
pennies. Pennies saved one and two at a time by bulldozing the grocer and the
vegetable man and the butcher until one’s cheeks burned with the silent imputation
of parsimony that such close dealing implied. One dollar and eighty-seven cents.
And the next day would be Christmas...
"Begin today!" That's all the note said. There was no indication from where it came
or who may have written it. Had it been meant for someone else? Meghan looked
around the room, but nobody made eye contact back. For a brief moment, she thought
it might be a message for her to follow her dreams, but ultimately decided it was
easier to ignore it as she crumpled it up and threw it away.
At that moment he had a thought that he'd never imagine he'd consider. "I could
just cheat," he thought, "and that would solve the problem." He tried to move on
from the thought but it was persistent. It didn't want to go away and, if he was
honest with himself, he didn't want it to.
Colors bounced around in her head. They mixed and threaded themselves together.
Even colors that had no business being together. They were all one, yet distinctly
separate at the same time. How was she going to explain this to the others?
Balloons are pretty and come in different colors, different shapes, different
sizes, and they can even adjust sizes as needed. But don't make them too big or
they might just pop, and then bye-bye balloon. It'll be gone and lost for the rest
of mankind. They can serve a variety of purposes, from decorating to water balloon
wars. You just have to use your head to think a little bit about what to do with
them.
She looked at her little girl who was about to become a teen. She tried to think
back to when the girl had been younger but failed to pinpoint the exact moment when
she had become a little too big to pick up and carry. It hit her all at once. She
was no longer a little girl and she stood there speechless with fear, sadness, and
pride all running through her at the same time.
She had been told time and time again that the most important steps were the first
and the last. It was something that she carried within her in everything she did,
but then he showed up and disrupted everything. He told her that she had it wrong.
The first step wasn't the most important. The last step wasn't the most important.
It was the next step that was the most important.