The Ghosts of Dreams You Abandoned 👻

"Of all the words of mice and men, the saddest are, ‘It might have been.’” — Kurt Vonnegut

I told myself I didn’t need it,
the application, the audition,
the key that would’ve fit a door I never knocked on.

Watched someone else wear my hunger
like it was tailored for them.
Clapped until my palms stung,
called it support.
Called it maturity.
Called it timing.

But every night,
there’s a version of me pacing a hallway
that doesn’t exist,
still holding the letter I never mailed.

Some ghosts don’t show up in mirrors.

They appear at 2am, when you’re wide awake, scrolling through other people’s lives wondering how you ended up watching instead of living.

They show up in your gut.
That pit you feel when someone else does the thing you secretly wanted to—but never let yourself try.

Not because you weren’t good enough.

But because you talked yourself out of it before life ever got the chance.

“We are haunted most by the dreams we never dared to pursue.”

That’s the brutal truth.

You didn’t fail.
You forfeited.

You negotiated with fear.
You traded discomfort now for regret later.

And now?

You feel it.

That quiet…