Life Is a Headache, Short Story by Alba

Alba Mastromatteo, am696@gmail.com

When Athena was born, Zeus—haunted by his father’s fate—swallowed her. The goddess stewed in his divine organs. She shot around in his nerve endings, pinching them and relishing the only feeling of control she had. Her favorite place to reside during this unjust imprisonment was his brain. She loved to crawl between the folds of his mind and pound her fists against his skull, invoking every bit of her power with each swing. That is how she brought Zeus, the king of the gods, to his knees, begging for a release from the pain.

Athena shot from Zeus’s cracked head while Hephaestus stood beside him holding the ax that cleaved open his skull. She appeared perfect, a grown goddess born into wisdom, craft, and battle strategy.

I envy her. 

I was born a squirming, stress-filled, screaming child. I was born full of imperfection. I was destined to make mistakes and learn the same lessons everyone before me had to learn. I think my brain was born aware of this imperfection. It informed the neurotransmitters in my brain and skewed my perceptions of reality. Despite all of this, a constant pursuit of perfection is built into me, carved into my bones, and injected into my blood. It sounds rather violent, I know, but it is with that conviction that I experience the world. 

Oh to be Athena, born fully formed and in a state of perfection from birth that many of us spend lifetimes wishing to attain. She was born complete without the need for development, no need for mistakes to sculpt her into the person she was meant to be. I am destined to be built from the ground up by hardship and misfortune, struggles and setbacks. She was Athena from the moment she was born, nothing more and nothing less.

There is hope for humans yet. Maybe the struggle that frames human existence is something to covet instead of lament. It is because of those challenges that we build empathy and compassion. The gods had none of those things. They started civil wars on whims and ended lives with little thought. A snap of their fingers and full family lines were lost. 

Maybe I do not want to be a god. 

The person I was when I came into this world will be drastically different than when I leave it. Who is to say if that is good or bad, or if I will ever reach perfection in any sense of the word. I take comfort knowing that every step I take, I am closer to the person I am meant to be. I will come closer to reaching my own version of Athena’s birth as each minute brings me closer to my own death.