Once Upon a Time: True Stories of an Aspiring Writer

24: Small (Wo)man on Campus

I WAS MORE THAN READY to leave high school, if not just to get away from the dorms. 

I had gotten a single dorm room that year, after Danielle had graduated. It was a great retreat, but I couldn't get used to it realizing I would have college roommates to come. Still, I had my own space, where I could invite Alexa over if I wanted.

We had met during the athletics period when we both took tennis the previous year. She was hyper and didn't always respect people's boundaries, annoying some of my classmates. I found that over time, those boundaries improved when it was just the two of us. Although she could be a handful to some, Alexa was also really sweet and we enjoyed our time together. We joined the tennis athletic option together and went to the mall on some weekends. 

Not that the last week was all bad. Spring traditions were in full swing, such as Fox Day and our own revue. Practicing for it was never that much fun, but getting back from our senior dinner to find the underclassmen ready with the show they rehearsed over the Memorial Day weekend while most of the class was on senior trip, making fun of all our quirks, was exciting. (I was portrayed as a girl who cursed at everyone, since I was one of the few students who didn't. They didn't have a lot of material on me---they didn't for some people--- but it was very entertaining.)  

In addition, we also had graduation practice (combined with a very exciting incident where the woman in charge refused to let my very first roommate, a lesbian, wear pants because she felt uncomfortable in them, causing said classmate to call out discrimination) and a candlelit ceremony where a junior presented each one of us with a poster. Alexa made mine. 

What I also remember? Watching a lot of Peter Pan. Why I chose that particular movie, I don't know, but I found it on YouTube and enjoyed coming back to it during the last week on campus, after classes were done. I'd love to say something about how it was because I felt I was growing up, but I don't know. Maybe it was just good company.

Honestly, this was one of the better weeks at school. 

Still, college was more exciting. I had gone on various college tours over the course of the past year, occasionally getting to miss class. I never wanted to leave them. I was ready to start independence and shed my high school experience forever. After getting into every school I applied to, I would hang the acceptance letter on the awesome bulletin board that came with my single room. So close, but so far. I would end up choosing a college in northeastern Pennsylvania that was two hours from home.

 But not everything seemed exciting at the moment.

Days before graduating, I received a devastating blow. While the rest of my class was getting ready to leave for senior trip on the morning of the school award ceremony, I was preparing to spend the weekend with my grandparents instead. The best part, though, was that I was going to see Ben for the first time in four years.

I would watch him, and many other former classmates, graduate from the Quaker high school. About a month earlier, I had constructed a carefully written email explaining why I wanted to go without so much as mentioning Ben---after all, half my Quaker school classmates went there. So it only seemed natural to want to go, right? 

Somehow, I won. They let me go! I couldn't believe it! Four years of failed contact attempts later, I would come out on top! All it took was the most nerve-wracking email I'd ever written! I spent the next few weeks alternating between complete excitement and anxiety, often going back to Peter Pan as a distraction.

I was going to see him after all this time. What would I do? Who else would I talk to while I was there? How was I going to deal with his parents? For that matter, would he be okay with seeing me there? This was really happening!