Thomas Jefferson once said, “When we see ourselves in a situation which must be endured and gone through, it is best to make up our minds to it, meet it with firmness, and accommodate everything to it in the best way practicable. This lessens the evil; while fretting and fuming only serves to increase your own torments.” Life can sometimes get the best of us; it throws tough situations our way, breaks us down, and we are left to clean up the pieces and make the best out of what is left. In his terrifyingly realistic short story, The Secret Goldfish, David Means delivers a message on the importance of perseverance through life’s many trials by utilizing flashback, symbolism, and metaphor, without these devices the story would not have been the same. The talented David Means is the author of four award winning short story collections and a novel. Means’ work is most often compared to the writings of renowned authors like the Nobel Prize winning, Alice Munro, Ernest Hemingway, and Flannery O’Connor. Like O’Connor’s work, Means focuses on the troubles and corruption of American society while hinting subtly at underlying themes of religion, grace, sin, or redemption, and like O’Connor’s stories, his writings often become teachings for his readers. In an interview with Tom Barbash for the Rumpus, David Means says his stories are deeply personal and says he wants to “tell stories that were compelling and sparked my creative energy, but also to find some way, each time, in each