Miss Park

Graduation

I crane my neck to see over the multiple rows and rows of blue gowns, scanning the crowd. I spotted Jennie and Jisoo through the crowd sitting side by side in accordance to their last names. They had their fingers interlocked and Jisoo was giggling at whatever Jennie was whispering to her, neither of them paying attention to the guest speaker.

I twist my body even further in my chair towards the crowd standing towards the left of the bleachers, and sure enough, my girlfriend was standing right at the front. She looked proud, it felt good to be the type of person that would make Rosie proud. She caught my eye and waved, a shy but excited wave. A grin spread across her face and she gave me a thumbs up, and by returning it I drew the attention of the boy sitting beside me.

She blows a kiss and mouths 'I love you'. The boy beside me looks at his former teacher, then back at me, then back at her. I blow her a kiss back 'I love you too!'.

"What?" I ask the boy next to me, who was still looking between me and Rosie.

"Nothing... just, why are you blowing kisses at our teacher? I mean, I know she left but she would still have been asked to come because she was a teacher to us this year". He shrugs and turns back around in his seat, folding his arms over his chest.

"Im not blowing kisses at my teacher. I'm blowing them at my girlfriend".

He didn't say anything, but he tensed up a little and looked at me with a hell of a lot of judgement. But I couldn't care less. He was right though when he said that Rosie was asked to come today because she had been teaching here most of the year.

I could see my mother standing more towards the right with Jennie and Jisoo's parents, all were looking important in their work attire. They were smiling slightly, all of them proud of their daughters who had worked hard to achieve this together. I loved all of them. Both Kim families had been like second parents to me. I wish my dad could have made it from Thailand to see me, but I knew he would be proud of me too.

To my right were the principals, guidance counsellors and all the other school faculty. They didn't look they wanted to be here. Most of them had grumpy faces, especially my biology teacher, Mrs. Bailey.

As we were all seated in alphabetical order, I sat smack bang in the middle of my classmates. The class of 2020. It was finally here. It was our final moment to be used as a stepping stone into the real world, what we had been preparing for our whole lives. I had only been here in Australia for 4 years, but this school had given me so many good memories. Here I had met my best friends, and the love of my life. The three most important people in my life.

So here we were, after 13 years together for some, and 4 years for me, it was finally time. Time to walk up those steps onto the stage. The piece of paper I would receive would forever remind me that I had made it. I was on my way to doing something with my life. My life that had been nearly taken away from me.

Sure, University was going to start after the break and I will have to move away from Rosie and go through the stress of schooling all over again. But, for now, I was free. My only task for now was to sit in this uncomfortable gown for a while and wait for them to call out my name.

"Good morning!" The principal steps up to the podium, greeting the crowd. He asked the graduating class to move into position and stand for our names to be called. I could see Rosie clearly from where I was standing, her and I just smiled at each other the whole time. She even got the attention of Jennie and Jisoo to give them a wave and a thumbs up too. She's so cute.