It was a cold snowy day in a remote vintage village of Warrington. On the outskirts of the village, right next to the vineyard that was positioned on top of the hill, there was the house of the Bergner family. There lived a high-schooler by the name of Konrad, with his sister Laura, mother Jasmine, and grandma Hillary. Their family experienced a devastating loss last month, as Konrad's father had died due to a heart attack. Everybody was deeply affected by his death, especially Konrad, who was only seventeen years of age. Since his father's passing, Konrad would sit in his room every day, deeply depressed, very passive and completely without the will to live. He tried to escape from reality and forget the horrific turn his life had taken by watching comedy shows on television. His mother, Jasmine, who was also deeply horrified by her lovely husband's death, would check on her son every day to see if he was all right, but Konrad would say the same exact sentence every single day: "Leave me alone, I'm watching television!"
One day Konrad finally got bored of television. His eyes started to hurt and he also started feeling a strong desire towards something new, something that wasn't just lying in bed all day, eating crisps, and laughing at comedies. That day Konrad decided to do something that he had never done before, something he had disliked his whole life, and that was reading a book. He went downstairs to his late father's room and took a book from his bookshelf. The book was titled The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Konrad took the novel and went back to his room and started to read. He not only found the novel very interesting, but also saw a lot of similarities with his own life while reading a piece of Romantic literature. He found himself in Werther, a tragic man who committed suicide because of fatal love for someone he wasn't able to get. Werther's love was towards a girl, while Konrad's was for his father. Werther's natural environment was nature, while Konrad's was books! While reading the novel, Konrad discovered his passion for literature. He instantly jumped from his chair and went downstairs into his father's room to read more books.
Konrad found a lot of interesting books in his father's room, from novels to plays, and started reading them like crazy. One day he would read literature from the period of Italian Renaissance, the next day he would read ancient Greek literature or novels from the Spanish Baroque... He became obsessed with literature! The changes were noticed instantly. He completely forgot about television, started socializing more, and felt like he was becoming smarter. He felt entirely reborn! His mother couldn't be happier. Whenever her son came downstairs to tell her her about a piece of literature he had just read, she would let a few tears slide down her cheek, caused by her emotional relief. One day, while everyone was asleep, Jasmine started to pray to God. "Dear Saviour, thank you for saving my son. Thank you for setting him free from horror and helping him find his passion. I couldn't be happier and more thankful. The day he opened my husband's wardrobe and took the book was a truly the day that changed everything!" said Konrad's mother in a prayer to God in the middle of a windy and rainy night.
The following morning Konrad felt the interest towards reading Russian realism. He went through his father's wardrobe, but couldn't find what he was looking for. He went to his mother to see ih she knew if they had some pieces of Russian realistic literature. "Your father has never been a fan of Russian realism, therefore he never possessed and pieces of that literature. Your grandpa was a huge Dostoevsky fan. He must have had some of his works," said Konrad's mother. "All right. I am going upstairs to see if grandma still has his old novel collection," replied Konrad to his mother. "Wait! Your grandma doesn't like what you are doing," said Jasmine. "What do you mean she doesn't like what I am doing? Are you talking about the fact that I started reading literature? What is wrong with her? Every single grandma would be proud of their grandson in this situation," exclaimed Konrad. Jasmine decided to reveal Konrad some dark truth about his grandma. She said that his grandma Hillary was not a normal grandma like other grandmas. She disliked every author that had ever written anything, and called them lazy. She had even tried to burn all of his grandpa's books because she didn't want the love of her life to spend days just reading books. She had always preferred television. Jasmine warned her son to not be surprised if grandma became angry and kicked him out of her apartment. Yet, Konrad went to his grandma's apartment, ignoring what his mother had said to him. As Konrad walked through the front door of his grandma's apartment, he saw her standing right in front of the door. She had been expecting him, as she had already heard the conversation between him and his mother, and was brutally angry. She couldn't believe her grandson liked to read books. Hillary took all of her husband's books and threw them into the fireplace to forbid Konrad from ever reading them. Konrad watched with horror in his eyes. He couldn't believe what he had just witnessed. His emotions completely evaporated and he felt anger like never before in his life. He started to yell at his grandma, which made her start crying, then took her glasses and threw them at the wall and screamed one last time at her before leaving and slamming the door so hard that even the birds on the wire outside got scared and flew away.
While he was walking downstairs towards his room, he felt something from the inside, like something was eating him alive. He tried to ignore it, but couldn't. He was not able to read, eat, watch through the window peacefully or even sleep. He stayed awake until 5 in the morning. When he finally fell asleep, he saw himself in his dreams throwing his grandma's glasses against the wall and yelling at her. He couldn't believe that was him. He felt like a monster. Suddenly, his mother woke him up stating that his grandma was in a terrible condition. While he was asleep, Jasmine called the doctors to come to their house quickly because Hillary had started having respiratory problems. Konrad firstly slapped himself in the face a few times in hope he would wake up, but unfortunately for him, he wasn't dreaming. Konrad froze in such a fear in hope he had never experienced before. His mother knew he was not all right and asked him to come and talk to her, but he rejected his mother's invitation and decided to stand in front of his window instead. He watched the nature entirely frozen in snow and started to sympathize with it. The picturesque view of God's creation was covered by depression, sadness, regret and even fear. Konrad instantly felt the same was as the nature before his eyes, but his hardships weren't snow or cold temperatures; they were the feelings of regret and inside suffering of what he had done to his grandma.
Later that day, after a long, long episode of compassion with nature, Konrad came up with the decision to read to clear his mind. He decided to read The Canzoniere, written by the Italian poet Francesco Petrarch. He quite liked what he was reading, when all of a sudden, Konrad's sister Laura rushed into his room to tell him the news. Grandma had returned from the hospital and was feeling quite well. Konrad felt like he had been set free from something. He was set free from the feelings and thoughts that wouldn't go away from his, but now they had disappeared for good in a matter of seconds. Konrad closed The Canzoniere, put it on his bookshelf and rushed downstairs to see his beloved grandma. He was so happy to see her. He apologised to her and promised to give her new glasses as soon as he got the money. He and his mother talked with Hillary for a bit longer than expected due to feelings of happiness, love, and most importantly, the feeling of family.
Almost an hour had passed and everyone finally decided to go their way. Konrad, of course, went to his room, but when he opened the door of his room, he was in complete shock. All of his books were completely ripped. His room was full of shredded pieces of paper all over it. He simply stood at the front door and looked at his room in complete disbelief. Konrad fell down on his knees, put his hands over his face and started to suffer in silence. Every piece of literature that he had read or had been planning to read was completely destroyed. All of a sudden, something went through his head. A throwback of yesterday when the similar event occurred with his grandma. He spent about half an hour saying to himself "Don't do it again!" In the end, he decided to accept what had happened. Konrad walked through his room to see what exactly had been destroyed. When Konrad saw that the only book entirely untouched was, in fact, The Canzoniere, he realized something was not right. "Out of hundreds of books in this room, the only one left untouched is the book that has a character named Laura. I could understand if my sister had kept this book because she has the same name as the character, but she is 4! She doesn't know how to spell her name. She hardly even knows her own name since everyone is calling her either little princess or Lora," said Konrad to himself in disbelief. It was at that moment that Konrad realized that it was too big of a coincidence to be true, and he came to a realization that it was all God.
Later that night, Konrad decided to start writing his own book. He got that idea after realizing that his love for books and literature was God's gift. As soon as he started, he understood what writing a book really meant. You need to have a good inspiration, developed characters, a complex plot, a general message that you want readres to grasp while they are reading and a lot of other things. It's not just putting words on paper. Konrad couldn't find any inspiration. He looked around his room, at other books, through the window - but just couldn't find any inspiration for a great story. After he came close to giving up on writing his novel, he suddenly felt pulled into another world.
Konrad was not able to explain how he was feeling. He wasn't asleep, but he wasn't awake either. He didn't understand anything that was happening and felt like a lost passenger in the middle of the ocean. Konrad experienced panic and fear and shortly after those emotions, he entered a stage of questioning everything, from human psychology to emotions and thoughts. Right after those questions went through his mind, he woke up.
After he came back to the normal world, he realized that everything that had happened to him over the past days was all God's plan, from the day he decided to read one of his late father's books, over the days he got outraged at his grandma and lost all but one of his books, and to the moment he travelled through his inner world... it all happened for a reason and Konrad understood it at last. Everyone is born with a purpose and he had lost his purpose after his father's passing, but one day God decided to help him by leading him to the path towards discovering his real passion. That day was the day Konrad decided to read his first book. After that, God helped him realize he had behaved the wrong way towards his grandma by not letting him sleep and by giving him the second test in a form of his sister destroying all of his books so he could learn a lesson and never behave that way ever again. And finally, he helped Konrad find inspiration for his book by making him explore his own world. Konrad now had a great story to tell.
That day Konrad started writing his novel, which would later become one of the most read pieces of literature in the 21st century! After that book, Konrad wrote many others - novels, plays, articles about human psychology and macroeconomics, fairy tales for little children, and even an autobiography. He became one of the most popular writers of the modern age. A majority of his work was translated to many languages in the world, making him a global sensation. Konrad's work was liked by people of all ages, from children and high-schoolers to adults and old people. One day he was invited to an interview in one of the biggest studios in the world. The whole world was watching! The purpose of the interview was for people to understand how Konrad had become such a great writer.
When the interviewer asked Konrad what had made him come that far and how he had realized that writing was his passion, Konrad gave a long but powerful answer.
"You know, I was lost in life. My father had passed away a month earlier and I was completely depressed, and sometimes a thought would cross my mind to take my own life. As I said, I was completely lost, but then God intervened. One day I got bored of television and decided to read a book, and you know what they say, the rest is history. I understand not everyone has the same passions and interests, and that is completely fine and normal. Someone wants to be a vet, someone a nurse, someone a firefighter... everyone has their own passion! And it's up to you to discover it. And when you feel lost, God is going to help you." When the reporter asked Konrad why he had named his first book The Day That Changed Everything, Konrad simply responded by saying that it was indeed the day that changed everything for him.