sonder

wabi-sabi

Chapter Thirty Six

Wabi-Sabi

(n.) the discovery of beauty in imperfection; the acceptance of the cycle of life and death.

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    It wasn't easy to change the trajectory of my life, doing it the first time wasn't easy and neither will the second be; however, this time around, if I've learned anything from Kali, it's that family is so important and that's the difference between the first time I changed my life and the second.

    This time around, rather than overcoming my suicide attempt on my own, I'm finally getting a fresh start in a new town, at a new school, and with new people. I couldn't force Kali to like me back, so instead of sulking, I've decided to keep moving.

    With senior year starting tomorrow, I felt oddly at peace with the beginning of the end of an era. High school wasn't exactly my best years going but I learned a lot from them and would miss the stupid block schedules, the teachers that are so stuck in their own ways, and even the overhyped school spirit.

    Honestly, it was bittersweet but for once in my life, I felt like things would be okay. Jeremiah and I had been practicing nonstop recently, no matter the weather or time of day. And I think I was going to go for the coaching job.

    I'd forgotten just how much I loved soccer but truthfully, I liked seeing Jeremiah's face when he finally conquered a maneuver that he was struggling with or seeing him focused on nailing down a new challenge more than I ever liked playing. It made me proud and I think that's what it takes to be a coach: loving to help people more than the game itself.

    "Are you training for the Olympics or something?" Someone calls out from behind me, when I look over my shoulder to see a guy around my age walking up to the field where Jeremiah is dribbling the ball to warm up.

    "Maybe." Jeremiah shouts to him, not taking too much of his focus off of the ball.

    The guy chuckles casually before offering me his hand. "I'm Alec, my family and I live right by you. I go to the high school and I've seen you hanging out with Kali before so I figured I'd come to introduce myself." He says as we shake hands.

    "I'm Damian, that's Jeremiah." I say, nodding over to Jeremiah. "We just moved here at the beginning of the summer." I tell him, completely ignoring the comment about Kali.

    "Nice to meet you!" Alec exclaims. "Are you a senior too?" I nod, glancing from Jeremiah to Alec because I'm a little nervous. "Cool, well if you're interested the soccer team is looking for some new players. I just thought I'd let you know."

    I freeze up for a second when I hear tryouts but then as Alec begins to walk away, I call out to him. "I'm actually looking into coaching for the U-14 team."

    "You can do both if you'd like too, I know that some of the boys from the team do both too." He shouts back, his figure nearly half way back to the subdivision. "I'll see you at school tomorrow, Damian." 

    And with that last remark, he's gone and I think I just possibly started a new beginning on a good chapter.

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