Short Stories

2-Romantically Catastrophic

I was walking through the hallways of the school, one last time. I can't believe it. Most of my life was spent on this place. This very hallway. I can't believe I am walking through this place, that I am too familiar with, one last time.

Today's the day. I'm finally graduating. I was walking through the now empty hallway and was headed towards the gymnasium of Travis High, the school where a lot of things happened.

When I arrived at the gymnasium, I was greeted by my friends and my family. A few minutes later, the program finally started. After the awarding ceremony, it was finally my turn to give my valedictorian speech.

I slowly made my way up the stage, towards the podium. I started my speech with a few acknowledgements and then started with the actual speech. "For many years, this school has been my second home. I've had lots of moments here. Memorable moments and moments where I felt like giving up. But happy or sad, this place has provided me an atmosphere as homey as my own home. Somehow this place provided me comfort. I always thought, I can't wait to leave this place. But then as years passed by, I realized how much this place meant to me. Not just the place but the people that made this place so special to me. I never knew that this place would be able to change me, yet this place managed to make me who I am today. Mature, strong, and ready to face the next stage of my life. College. At one point, I felt like blaming all my problems on this place and its people. But then, that problem just transformed me to who I am today. I'll never forget all the times when I felt like I was at the lowest point of my life. The point where I just wanted to give up and never move forward with my life. The point where I was so weak and vulnerable. But that was the challenge that made me strong and impalpable. I thought that if I faked that I was strong nothing would happen to me, but that just made everything worse. I sometimes wished I was incapable of feeling any emotion, but emotions are what makes us all stronger and it's what makes us fight for everything that matters the most to us. If we simply feel nothing, fighting for something would feel like nothing to us and we wouldn't have the motivation to do so. So to all my fellow classmates, thank you so much for all the happy moments we shared. All the jamming, dancing, and teasing we shared. To my friends, thank you. I can't simply count all the times where you guys helped me with my problems and for the countless moments we all shared together. From roadtrips to pranking schoolmates. Thank you for making me discover my wild and fun side. To my parents, I can't thank you enough for the countless times where I kept crying and instead of asking me what the problem was, you guys just simply hugged me and told me everything will be alright. I sometimes ask myself, what did I do to deserve such caring and understanding parents. But that's just a bit of who you guys are, you guys also molded me to who I am today. Mature, brave, strong, persevering, and yet crazy sometimes. You guys made me laugh so much through all the times when I felt like I couldn't even smile. Thank you so much and I love you both so much." I ended the speech with me acknowledging everyone who sacrificed and made time to watch their loved ones in one of the most memorable experiences that serves as one of their milestone to their future.

After all that, I went down the stage and sat down while the claps started to die down. I didn't know that my speech made a lot of people emotional until I looked at my back. And then a flashback occured to me all of a sudden.

I was running towards the park where I first met him, with my parents laughing at me, clearly amused at my excitement. We were only 9 back then. The time when we thought everything was like fairytales with happy endings. We were riding swings and we were both laughing. Enjoying each other's company. I had just realized, how did two such young and innocent kids enter such a huge mess? But then, I was transferred to another time setting.

We were 16 now and we slowly drifted apart. I became this famous cool girl but really I was basically considered the "queen bee" back then, and I guess, he got left behind and remained as an average guy who plays in the lacrosse team. Very good-looking but didn't grabbed that much attention because he loved reading books so much that only a few would understand his inner nerdiness. But destiny made its first move and crossed our paths once again. It was during the winter time when the guy, whom I thought was "the one", broke up with me. Don't get me wrong, he broke up with me properly. He didn't cheat on me and he isn't the typical player you read on books and watch on movies. This guy was actually nothing like those bad boys. He was such a great guy which was why I thought he was the one. He was too perfect, or so I thought. He gave me all the love every girl could've wanted. He made me feel special. He's the kind of guy who never fails to fulfill your expectations and sometimes even goes beyond your expectations. He's just too perfect to let go easily. I guess I always thought I had the worst problems in the world, when really his problems are far worse than mine. His parents got divorced and he had to transfer to another state with his dad. He told me he broke up with me because he didn't want to hold me back on all the opportunities just because I was still with him. He knew it'd be hard if we were still in a relationship up to this day. And I guess letting him go wasn't the worst choice I did in my life. During the day he broke up with me, my ex-bestfriend saw me on the park crying my eyes out. He saw me and went up to me. I was freezing to death, and he noticed that immediately and gave me his sweater. He askes why but I just kept crying. I didn't want him to know why. He must've understood my situation, and he didn't push the topic further. Instead, he just comforted me, and kept telling me that everything will be fine.