Summer’s Journal entry: June 18, 2012
Tonight I graduated. I won’t lie, as I walked across the stage and stared out into the faces of all the proud parents, staring up at me, something stung. But I plastered a convincing, confident smile, something I had learned to do throughout my five years of competitive cheerleading. I walked up to a member of the school board who switched my tassel from one side to the other, then I continued on to my principle who shook my hand, gave me my diploma and congratulated me. I looked into his unfamiliar eyes. I had gone to the same high school for four years, yet I had never had an actual conversation with the man. What gave him the right to give me my diploma? Isn’t this supposed to be one of the biggest days of my life? Shouldn’t it have been someone who actually meant something to me? I smiled as a way of saying thank you and walked back to my seat where the rest of my class was. Afterwards, while everyone was taking pictures in their caps and gowns, my aunt Annabelle walked up to me. Her curled red hair always fell perfectly around her face. She lived in Toronto and every time I saw her, she always looked classier. Now that she’s twenty-six, she is well into her career as an editor at a magazine in Toronto called tTeen. She always gives me tips on my writing. I so desperately want to be a writer. As soon as I saw her, my whole face lit up. She smiled back as she leaned in for a hug. She congratulated me and then looked me in the eye and told me something I had been dreading the whole year.
“You’re not a kid anymore,” she said. I supposed she noticed my frown because she leaned in and said, “There is a positive side to this situation. You now have the freedom to be whoever you want to be. You can do whatever you want to do. You don’t have to do what everyone is expecting of you, if that isn’t what you want. You don’t have to take that scholarship. Go do the things that you have been yearning to do. Go be the girl that you were born to be. I know that that girl is so amazing and has so much potential to do great things. So, go do those great things that you’ve been dreaming of since you were a little girl.”
I stared up into her hazel eyes, about to cry.
Now I’m staring into all the things I’ve always wanted to do. They’re staring back at me, almost mockingly. Some of these things are obviously in no way practical. What was I even thinking when I wrote them down?
“Go do the things you’ve been yearning to do.”
I’m too scared
“Go do the things you’ve been yearning to do.”
I can’t
“Go do the things you’ve been yearning to do.”
Those words just seem to resonate and I can’t let go of them. With those words grasped close to my heart, I stare down once more at the list. This list, I wonder where it will take me…
My Bucket List
1. Move out of this town
2. Ride a double decker bus in London
3. Stand at the top on the Eiffel Tower
4. Play in front of 1000+ people
5. Have a silly string fight
6. Ride a camel
7. Make a historical discovery
8. Learn to surf in Australia
YOU ARE READING
The Bucket List (A Niall Horan Fanfic)
FanfictionShe's that crazy musical genius who received a scholarship to Juilliard, but vowed she would never play a note of music again, turned down the scholarship and moved across Canada to pursue journalism. Most people saw Summer Terrace as a lost cause...
