''Finally, I'd like to welcome to the stage (Y/N) (Y/L/N).'' the woman in blue announced. The whole room filled up with the sound of people clapping and some heads turned to (Y/N). She looked around and stood up, she smiled and fixed her dress. Walking up to the stage she felt her heart racing faster by each step she took.
She shook the woman's hand and thanked. (Y/N) made her way up to the microphone and took the book in her hand. She scanned the cover with her fingers and smiled to her self. The room slowly faded into the quiet and she cleared her throat.
''Thank you everyone.'' she said looking around the room. ''I- um. I spend the whole week trying to prepare this speech but honestly there's just no way to prepare.'' she said.
''When I was 17 I had a dream about writing one day, I wanted to make people get away from the computers and TV's and pick up by books, to make them feel inspired and to make them realize just how much a few words in a book can make you feel. But just like in everyone's dream, there's always a wall that keeps you from it. My wall were my parents, they weren't exactly what you would call role models. By the time I was 12 my dad was serving his 4 years sentencing for illegal drugs possession while my mother was drinking away her life and sucking cocaine up her nose. I didn't come from much, I had nobody to lean on. That all changed a couple of weeks after I turned 17. I met this guy Calum at a book store and everything about him looked special even though he looked just like everyone else. A few days after I met him I went my grandmother who was very sick at that time; and she said to me, 'There's something different about you' and I then I said to her, 'Grandma, there's this boy' at that moment her face lit up an I remember like it was yesterday when I saw that spark in her eyes because she was a hopeless romantic, she just loved love. So she took my hand and asked me how he makes me feel and I told her exactly these words; 'I don't really know, but the way he laughs makes me smile, and the way he talks gives me butterflies. Everything about him makes me happy.' she told me that's the way she use to feel about her husband or my grandpa. After that day I realized that I loved this boy which was strange for me because I've never been in love with someone. Then I asked my self how do you know when you're in love with someone and when I thought about it I figured out that everyone has their own way of finding and acknowledging love. This is how I figured it out; when I missed him, I read our old conversations and smiling like an idiot. I listened to songs that reminded me of him and then I missed him even more. I knew I truly loved him because I felt like a part of me was missing when he wasn't around and because every thing and anything seemed pointless with out him. And the day I found out he loved me to he said this; 'You never fall to amaze me you know. Everyday there's something new that makes me love you even more than the day before.'. I was living in a fairy tale and it was like our love story never ended, I finally had someone to lean on. To have them hold me and tell be everything is okay. I finally knew what it felt like to be loved. But not all love stories end happy. Mine ended on the 14th of September. I was in the kitchen washing up behind the lunch me and Calum just had, my phone rang and I picked it up. I answered with a hello and the man on the other end asked if he's speaking to the right person and after that he told me 4 words that made my whole life shatter into tiny pieces; 'Your husband has been in an accident and unfortunately he didn't make it.. He died at the scene.' In that moment my whole body went numb, I dropped my phone on the floor and I remember just collapsing on the ground but I didn't cry. I didn't cry because it felt unreal, I didn't cry because an hour ago I was having lunch with him and now he was gone.. forever.Then it hit me and when it did, it hit me hard. I ran out of the house at that point I didn't even know why I was running. By the time I reached the front door tears were running down my face like a water fall. He was gone and I think the reason it hurt so much because I knew I wasn't ever going to hear his laugh, his voice, feel his touch and see his beautiful eyes. It was so unreal and it still is and even now after 3 years I miss him with every piece of my heart. A week after his death I was at his funeral and I was standing in the back by myself. The reason I was in the back was because I couldn't look at him because if I did I would probably collapse again, because I wouldn't want to leave his side. But somehow I found the strength to go up to his coffin and I grabbed a rose put it inside with him. Now I know I loved him and when I loved him, I realized I have never truly loved anyone I realized, I will never truly love anyone the way I love him. He was my first everything and I know I will never forget him.''
