Are you familiar with the game in which the player takes an unfortunate situation and tries to turn it into something to be glad about?
The Glad Game.
A game in which the girl whom I've grown closer to, Olympia Ventura, taught me how to play.
For example, when learning that her best friend wanted to kill her, Olympia decided to talk things out with her and try to resolve their issues with words. Olympia was glad that she didn't end up dead.
But the truth is, if it weren't for my intervention, or my lack of inaction to be more precise, Olympia would have been murdered by the friend she holds dearly.
But, in the end, she's still here.
That's something to be glad about, right?
What an inadequate way of putting things.
You lost both of your legs in war, but you should be glad you're still alive.
You lost the love of your life in a brutal car crash, but you should be glad you're still alive.
You lost what it was that made you you, but you should be glad that the person named Olympia Ventura is still alive.
We shouldn't experience suffering just to boil down our experience to "at least we're still alive."
I don't want to suffer endlessly just to be glad that I'm alive.
I want to be glad that I still have people I can rely on.
I want to be glad that I still have places I can run to.
I want to be glad that I still have something that inspires me to continue forward.
But when you boil seawater, what you're left with is salt. Just salt. A bitter residue of what once was.
All these things I've brought up only serve to strengthen the fundamental core of what the Glad Game is: being glad that you're still alive.
Is there anything inherently wrong with this frame of thinking?
No matter what happens to you, you should still be able to smile because you're still alive.
What's so wrong with being happy you're still alive?
Maybe it's not that one's happy that their still alive, but that they're happy only because they're still alive.
To live is to lose many things.
But to have lost something is to have had something.
Even if something is thrown away or forgotten, at least that something still existed, right? At least it served its purpose.
How is my desired way of viewing life different than Miss Pollyanna's?
I don't know.
I don't know anything.
But I can learn anything.
There's so much that I can learn.
There's so much I can discover that gives my life value.
Kumiko.
Kagami.
Emanon.
Olympia.
People I hold dear to me are what I'm glad for. Each one of them. They're the reason I'm able to write this story.
I've found numerous things that have made me glad. Glad that I'm still alive. Glad that I got the chance to be me.
This story is about Pollyanna, a girl learning that there are countless things to be glad about.
Olympia, do you have things that make you glad?
Not glad because you're still alive.
But glad that you got to be you?
And if not—do you think you ever could?