There wasn’t much on the TV to keep Karl’s mind from wandering. It didn’t help that he couldn’t stay on any one channel for longer than ten seconds. He had scanned all the news channels, all fourteen of them but it was all the same type of news, depressing. Most channels were showing images from the war in Syria. Though Karl sympathized with the plight of the Syrian people, he didn’t really understand the conflict but more importantly he didn’t want to understand it. He had his own conflict that he was trying to deal with it.
It had started a week ago when he was out with Michelle. She had spoken of getting married and having children. This wasn’t something that had ever entered Karl’s mind. Sure he was happy to hang out and sleep with Michelle but he had no interest in settling down or having kids. At twenty nine his main priority was bettering himself. He had checked out some of the local colleges and was more interested in going back to learn something new than on getting married and having kids.
He wanted to get a better job, with better pay and prospects. Working on the sales floor of Burns Furniture wasn’t something he really enjoyed. It paid for his rent and his time with Michelle but apart from that he didn’t see any benefit in working there. He knew that he would never be promoted to sales manager, there were too many other guys who had been in Burns longer than him and who made more sales than him. He also knew that if the recession got any worse, which Karl was sure it would, he would be one of the first ones to be let go.
College could be his saviour. It would expand his mind so he thought and it would help him in getting a better job, something in management. He had friends who had went to college after school and who had gone straight into management jobs after leaving college. They all seemed to be doing well, driving nice cars and enjoying life. That was important to Karl, enjoying life. Getting married or having kids would get in the way of how he wanted to live. At least in college he could be free to live the way he wanted.
He hadn’t told Michelle that he wanted to go to college, not yet anyway. She had gotten him the job in Burns through her father, who worked as the office manager in Burns. Explaining to her that he wanted to give up a steady job, particularly in a recession and go to college would be difficult but explaining to her that he didn’t want kids or that he didn’t want to get married was going to be harder. Harder because it would be a clear signal to Michelle that she and Karl wanted different things.
Turning the TV off, Karl tried to figure out how he could explain things to Michelle. College was what he wanted to do, surely she would understand that. Who knew what the future held, maybe when he was finished college, working in management, they could get back together again but for now he wanted a clean break. He wanted to leave Burns in the summer, split with Michelle too and start college in the autumn. Surely Michelle would understand that he didn’t want to settle down and have kids. It was just they were on different paths.
