You buy a sailboat, and name it Life. One day you decide to take a trip in your new boat. You climb onto it and imagine starting new, letting go of the past. You open the sail and look forward, getting ready for the future.

  At first, it’s easy sailing. The sunny days and easy breezes are perfect for learning how to drive the boat. The more time you spend on the boat, the more comfortable you get. In fact, you’re starting to get the hang of it. But it comes with a price, the farther away from land you get, the harder it gets to steer the boat.

  One day, you come across a storm. It’s worse than anything that has happened before. Large, gray clouds hang low over the white-capped, choppy waves. You’re scared, you don’t know if you’ll make it through alive. The waves toss you around like nothing, this is when you realize that you are just a minuscule part of the world. 

  Soon the sky clears and the waves calm down. You're cold and wet, but you made it! You have gained more confidence and learn that you’re stronger than you thought. You feel proud.

  You sail on, ready to take whatever the sea throws at you. About a week after the storm, hard winds start up again. Luckily, there’s no storm that follows. Although, did you get blown off course. 

  Suddenly, you realize that you can’t find your way back. You are lost! You check your compass, but it’s not working. As night falls, you grow very worried. You close your eyes and try to think. You hear a noise and open your eyes. 

  You have found a tiny island. You disembark and look around. There’s a little house you can stay in. Days pass, and you live in luxury on the little island. You forget about the boat in the journey you were on. But, one day as you walk along the beach, you find your boat again.

  You remember about your journey, you must keep going. You sadly say goodbye to the little island, vowing to never forget the good times you had. 

  On the ocean, you have a hard time controlling your boat, the time on the island made you forget all that you have learned. As time went by, you grew accustomed to the boat once again. But your problems didn’t stop. You were running out of food. In order to stay alive you’d have to catch your own food. The first few days without food were rough. It was very hard to catch your own food. But the more you practice the better it got. Now, you could sustain yourself. 

  On the horizon, you could see another storm brewing. You were a little scared but confident that you would be fine. But what you didn’t know was that this storm was much worse than the past one. You weren’t ready for this. Yet, you hold your head up high and plowed forward. 

  When you got to the middle of the storm you realized that this was a mistake. But it was too late. A huge wave came up. At least 10 times the size of your boat. It crashed down on you and pulled you away from the boat. You are now in the middle of a huge storm, without even a boat. You made inhumane efforts to keep your head above the water. Each wave crashed down, threatening to drag you to the bottom. 

  Just when you thought it was over, you found your upturned boat. You held on for your life and miraculously made it through the storm. It took you a long time to turn the boat upside down, but you did it and climbed onto the boat.

  After this hardship, you needed several days of rest. The sun was shining, telling you the worst was over. In a month or so you saw another island. But remembering what happened last time, you decide to keep going. 

  The boat grew older and more worn out, it was getting to the end of its life. You knew you were getting to the end of your journey. You had saved up enough food for the rest of the journey. So you took the time to just enjoy the rest of the journey. Soon enough, you could see land and knew it would be over. 

   You dock the boat, and step out. Sadness fills you as you untie the boat and push it back out into the water. Even at the end, you can still see the bright red letters on the side that said Life.