Puzzle-mania

Four years ago I began a puzzle.

At first, it was just for fun so I didn't take it too seriously. I'm quite impatient and not at all interested in puzzles so it never occurred to me that I will ever finish this puzzle, I just started it for fun, for something to do, I thought I'd get bored of it eventually and move onto something more interesting. I took my time putting the pieces together, I probably found a small piece that fit every couple of months. It didn't bother me too much, I knew it was going to be a long process.

It was a difficult puzzle, very dark and mysterious. I didn't know anything about it, I didn't know how many pieces there were, I didn't know what the picture was so the outcome was to be a complete surprise. I was going into it blind but that was ok, I had a good feeling about this one. I liked it the moment I saw the pieces. I had a feeling it was going to be a fun journey.

Slowly, piece by piece I put it together and it became increasingly pleasing as time progressed. As the picture emerged and became more apparent, it became less dark so I put more time in to try to complete the puzzle. As I became more serious about it, I began seeing beautiful amazing colours that spanned the spectrum of the rainbow, and that came as a total surprise. I hadn't expected to see so many colours and so much depth at first but the more time I dedicated to it, the more I enjoyed the puzzle and the more I liked what I saw.

At one point, I think I became totally obsessed with it. It bored the living daylights out of all my friends...

They couldn't understand what the attraction was, and I couldn't explain it to them. I just wanted more. I think most people don't see how stubborn I can be when I am focussed on something. I'm a very impatient person so to grab and keep my focus for 4 years is quite an incredible feat. This puzzle has done just that.

It took me a few years to get to a stage where I thought I knew what the picture was, I thought I could finally see the result. There weren't too many more pieces to go, I was getting very very close, many of the pieces just seemed to fall into place easily by themselves... but as it turns out, just to make things difficult, I discover there are missing pieces in the box! Not just any piece of the puzzle mind you, very important pieces. The ones that make or break the picture.

I was crushed. I devoted 4 years of my life to uncovering what I thought might be a beautiful picture and now I will never know what the final product looks like. Someone has decided it was funny to hide these vital pieces from me. Not only that, I have also discovered that I have been misled. Some of the pieces were purposefully put in the wrong place to throw me off guard. I don't see the fun in teasing someone like that.

Once upon a time, it all seemed so promising but all I see now are holes.

Big giant holes.

The once beautiful picture with stunning bright colours is now just one big black mess with wide-gaping holes spelling out "You are a fool". It mocks me.

All that time I can't get back. Cheated.