‘Heartbreak Academy’ – Andrew Griffes
The Heartbreak Academy is not so much a place as a convergence of circumstances. No one sets
out to come here. It is a destination wedding between care and entropy. You were invited in the
fine print when you signed the deed to your dreams. All who arrive here were headed somewhere
else, anywhere else. Mistakes and tragedies interrupted our progress toward whatever destination
we’d set out for, materializing out of the mirage that glimmered over our path. And we found
ourselves here, sure that we could resume our journey after a momentary rest , sure it was merely
a clerical error that our name was on the roster.
What holds this hall together is not mortar but the shared desire to leave. What holds our
attention is the curriculum of learning how to stay. Our new home is the abyss between what was
and what could be.
After the desperate rage to return to the cakewalk of fulfillment subsides, we begin to recognize
the faces of others here. They look nothing like us, we tell ourselves, but somehow know the
same songs and dance the same dances we dance.
We are here to learn why we came here – that it was not the whim of cruel fate but a long-
forgotten impulse toward beauty. We are here not to be punished, but to be polished.
