Learning to Swim

Introduction

Life is scary. You can never really know what’s coming next. It may be something great that will take your breathe away. Or it may be something terrible that brings you to a place so low not even your tears can find you. I can’t stand the anticipation of not knowing which it will be. I always try to expect the best, but almost every time I’m wrong.

No matter how many curveballs are thrown at me, though, I will continue to expect the best. Even if I know something bad is coming, I want to be an optimistic person because if I’m not then it means I’ve given in. Horrible things happen, but if I live my life expecting more of them then I don’t know how I could survive. Thinking something bad was coming would only bring me down. So instead, I choose to remain oblivious and savor the moments of tranquility and peace while they last. Because in my heart, I know they won’t last long.

I never fully realized that my life was different from most people. I thought that everyone’s mom was like mine. After I started school I began to realize that wasn’t true. I was fine with that, though. I was used to how things were because I’d never known anything else. I still couldn’t help but to note the little things I realized as I grew up.

When I was six years old and all of the little girls dreamed of being a princess, I dreamed of being the other little girls. They got to laugh and play all the time, things I was sadly deprived of. I wanted to hold on to the innocence that seemed to touch all of them. I desperately craved the blissful obliviousness that children have regarding the world and how things really are. They got to enjoy the simple things while I had to take on the responsibilities of an adult. Most of all I think I was jealous of the way a mother would do everything they could to comfort their child when they were upset. I wanted that. I wanted a mom that would hold me when I cried, not the other way around.

When I was ten and all the other kids said they would grow up to be astronauts and firefighters, I longed to be free. I dreamed of traveling and seeing the world. I would do anything but stay in the miserable place I was trapped in at the time. The job didn’t matter as long as it would take me away. Out of the grips of my mother and out of the looming nothingness I sensed my life would bring. One day, I used to tell myself, one day I could finally be free. Then came the birth of my sister and all of that was rearranged.

When I was seventeen and everyone already had bright futures ahead of them, I was stuck. Stuck taking care of my mother. Stuck juggling two jobs along with school. But most of all I was stuck raising a kid that wasn’t my own. It seemed that there would be no way out for me. I knew that when all of the other kids left for college and started a life of their own, I would be left doing the same things as always. I began to believe this was all life had to offer for me. I did my best to accept it, but in my heart I felt hopeless.

That is, I was hopeless until Liam Chase came into my life. I remember seeing him many times before we ever actually talked. He was always just a face in a crowd that never stood out more than the rest. I was way too busy and caught up in my life to take a closer look. That is, until he made me. I never knew the possibility of what he could be to me. That he could be the one to change it all and make me believe in something more. One moment in my life would change me forever and it all started with hello.

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Author's Note:  This was just a new idea that i had and wanted to put up. I had a lot of trouble writing the introduction, but i know where the rest of the story is going. So, i'm hoping if you didn't like this you will at least give the next chapter a chance. I'm probably going to change this a bit more later, also.

Anyway, please let me know what you think! If you have any advice i would love to hear it :)