The foolish architect
Samuel was thirteen when his world flipped upside down. One regular day, his class got shuffled, and suddenly he was sitting in a strange room with faces he didn’t know. That’s when he saw her. She didn’t speak much, but there was something about her—quiet, steady, just there. Before long, walking home together turned into the highlight of his day. He found himself paying more attention to her than to his own life, like he was studying some secret blueprint.
Months passed, and Samuel’s thoughts only got messier. In his head, he had this whole council—pieces of himself arguing back and forth. Fear, logic, hope, impulse; he’d always counted on them to help sort out the world, even if they made a lot of noise. When she started to drift away and their talks faded, those voices grew louder. They picked apart every word, warning him not to get lost in wishful thinking.
A year later, Samuel barely recognized himself. What started as admiration had turned heavy, almost painful. He called himself the “Foolish Architect”—a kid building whole lives in his mind, none of them real. That’s when Dusk showed up. Dusk wasn’t a person, more like a shadow—an icy, cutting version of his own doubts. Suddenly his inner council felt unfamiliar, even threatening. Samuel wondered if he’d created the storm he was now caught in.
School events, loneliness, awkward run-ins—everything seemed to push him further into his own head. By prom night, things broke. He found himself lost in a strange dream, wandering through a crumbling temple he’d built himself, finally seeing the truths he’d dodged for so long.
Letting go wasn’t dramatic. He just admitted to himself how he felt and accepted it wasn’t going to be returned. The final talk with her closed the chapter, but didn’t feel like a win—more like letting out a long breath after holding it in for too long.
When he walked into high school orientation, something had changed. He wasn’t chasing after someone else anymore. For once, he felt like he could build something real. Not as the Foolish Architect, but as himself—ready to start, finally, on his own future.