Gemotions

Rain lashed against the windows of Leo's tiny apartment, mirroring the turmoil within him. He stared at the screen, the webpage detailing his "revolutionary" self-folding laundry machine. Its design, he saw with a sinking feeling, was nearly identical to a product already available on the market. His shoulders slumped.

He pushed back from the desk, the chair scraping loudly against the wooden floor. The rejection email from the venture capitalist sat, unopened, in his inbox. He scrubbed at his face, feeling the fatigue settle into his bones. The projects he'd been working on piled up in a corner, gathering the dust of neglect. He felt adrift. He knew what he *wanted* to do, but it felt as if it were on the other side of a raging river he had no way of crossing.