Recollections of Endless Summers

By Connor Reilly

In Connor Reilly's debut anthology follow the misadventures of two best friends as they stumble through their vivid existences in the search for true meaning. Many of the stories are heavily influenced by Reilly's belief in the power of relationships, and the overwhelming draw of the ocean. A read that will not only leave you laughing, but questioning the vices and virtues you battle with everyday as a human being. "The question I find myself asking is do I want to be like a candle or a firework? The candle burns steadily and slowly, not much excitement but an existence that is coveted by many. The firework boldly shoots out into the deep blackness of night, fizzles higher and higher for a few seconds before exploding in an overwhelming spectacle of sound and color..." - Recollections of Endless Summers

• Language: English
• Publisher: Connor Reilly
• Release date: Mar 15, 2015
• ISBN: 9781310125201

Connor Reilly

"Buy the ticket, take the ride."

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Recollections of Endless Summers

A Collection of Short Stories

By: Connor Reilly

Published by Connor Reilly at Smashwords

Copyright 2015

Buy the ticket, take the ride.- Hunter S. Thompson

Introduction (ramblings of a teenager)

One minute you're seventeen being lectured in the living room by your overly protective parents who feel through the punches and blows they've given and received from life that they somehow maybe even mystically know what's best for you. Personally I think it's just a long awaited chance to relive their own lives through a being they've put on this earth, another chance to do it differently. But without the messiness of actually having to do anything because remember you're the one they're lecturing on how you must undoubtedly get your shit in order before you screw up this chance.

The next minute you're a parent, lecturing you're seventeen year old child who you're confident has finally gone off the deep end for falling prisoner to some tragically minuscule mishap on the long, bumpy road that is shaping into their life. You hope that they get a job, have a family, a house, and maybe even a dog. But more than all these physical luxuries you are confident they will get to enjoy because you in all your accomplishment are the one instructing them. I mean look how successful you are with your graying hair and less than average career, and how could you forget about all those unpaid bills and that view of the freeway a stone’s throw outside your house. Pathetic. You pray they die a quiet death, that for better or for worse they don't experience the misfortunes you are sure you've experienced, when the even sadder truth is you've done nothing but scrape at the bottom of the barrel. Ignorant, even blinded by mediocrity you think you're living but in reality you've been dead for years, no hopes, no dreams, no nothing. So the next thing you're left doing is in some cases literally praying for some redemption after death, because frankly you fucked up this life with the false beliefs you are hastily drowning in.

Some call it soul, some call it the edge. You see most people believe that when you fall off the edge of something you die, this deriving from the close mindedness that is spoon fed to us by the government, society, our peers, everyone sadly. But the truth is you actually aren't alive until you've reached the edge, turned around, looked back at the horrifically monotone world we are confiding in, flick two middle fingers to it and proceed to jump off. The few brave individuals who partake in this jump usually don't stick around long enough to explain to us the dramatic lows and euphoric highs I'm sure truly being alive is full of. The John Lennon's, the Hunter S. Thompson's, people who took in every smell, every sight, every cut, every bruise, every drug, every experience in totality and contracted good and bad from it like an STD. I say STD because yes living life to its maximum potential is a rewarding venture but one that'll kill painfully, and suddenly. So here I am, convoluted in my own want to be one of the few who reaches that edge but left in utter guilt because of the beautiful life I face filled with expectations, regulations, and blessings. The question I find myself asking is do I want to be like a candle or a firework. The candle burns steadily and slowly, not much excitement