I've been obsessed with the idea of moving to France ever since I was fourteen years old. I had heard of a girl who left in the middle of the night without any warning. She had met up with her online friend, and they ran. They ran together. They ran away from what they hated and started a life together. The parents of the girl were furious. They always got mad whenever someone brought her up. Supposedly she left a note behind that caused the parents to be butt hurt to the fullest extent.
None of us had heard from her for a good two years until she called her sister saying she was engaged and that she wanted her at the wedding. It turns out they had run to Greece and fell in love. I personally think it was very romantic, but all of my peers thought it was incredibly stupid. They all mocked her.
Over the years I grew to hate my small town in the middle of no where Wyoming, so I came up with my plan. I would leave the town early in the morning on the first Monday after my highschool graduation. I would tell my parents of course, they are pretty cool when it came to my stupid plans as long as I could fund most of it. They always pitched in one fourth of the expense.
I saved up my money for months and started looking into online college courses. Finally after months of hard work, a bunch of AP classes, and planning, it was my graduation day.
The day was beautiful. It was slightly cloudy but the sun would show up every now and then, and it was only 75 degrees outside. The flowers were all vibrant colors and bumble bees and hummingbirds fluttered around the flowers. I smiled looking at the simple beauty in front of me.
I wore a sundress under my gown and I held my cap in my hand, not wanting to put it on yet. It makes my head look weird. I chose against wearing a bra because ya know.. #freethenip, and because I didn't want my bra strap in any pictures today. The long sundress had purple flowers on it and it suited my 5'6 body perfectly, in my opinion that is. I had seen one of the boys snicker when they looked at me. I rolled my eyes thinking about them. They were just mad that I was hot and they were not.
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(Her dress is either to the side or above this text.)
I smiled as I saw my mom and dad walking over to me. Probably hoping to talk quickly before the ceremony started. I looked down at my watch and saw that it was 11:45, the ceremony started at 12 pm. My mom came to me and hugged me tightly, my dad joining her, hugging me from the other side. I was crushed in between them. We called it the sandwich. Once they pulled away my mom looked at me, her hands on my shoulders.
"Oh baby you look beautiful." She teared up. My dad walked up beside her kissing her temple softly before looking me up and down. He teared up as he took in how old she's gotten.
"My little princess isn't so little anymore." He choked back on his tears. My dad has always been the more emotional one in the house.
"You guys I'm barely any different than I was when I left." I smiled slightly. They said basically the same thing when I left my room this morning. They also reacted the same way. I giggled as my mom grabbed my dad and he cried into her shoulder. I loved their relationship. They fall more in love with each other everyday. I can't help but to envy what they have, and hope that one day someone will love me and I will love them as much as my parents love each other. Maybe one day..
I look down at my clock and notice that it's 11:52. I bid my parents adieu, and hugged them both, kissing their cheeks as I pulled away. I told them I loved them and they told me how proud they were of me.
Sure I wasn't the top in my class, but I was proud of my 4.16 GPA and I was glad they were proud of me as well. I walked away waving before sitting in my assigned seat.
Since my name was Aphrodite— stupid I know, I'm still waiting to get smited by the goddess herself, my mom believes that Aphrodite would be honored to have me named after her— Anders, I will be one of the first people to get my diploma. However, I would have to wait for ages for my entire graduating class to be done. Luckily I brought snacks.
I sit in my chair, fiddling with my bracelets, waiting for all the speeches to be over. I watch as the class president, valedictorian, and the class advisory leaders all give long speeches, some long enough to make me groan in mental pain. The valedictorian's name was Amélie and her speech was the longest out of the 5. She had her speech typed out, and it was about 8 pages long, from what I counted. She also used really big words that made my head hurt trying to understand what she was saying. I was proud of her though. She was only 16 years old and graduating high school. She was born a genius, we rarely talked but we both would sit together. We had an unspoken agreement for the four years of high school we had together.
I smiled at her when her eyes fluttered over to mine. She looked at me proudly before waking down. And I started clapping for her, waking up the people next to me. I rolled my eyes as most of the clapping started about 30 seconds after me. They probably all fell asleep, and I couldn't blame them, I would've been able to sleep as well if I didn't have to show her I was proud of her.
Amélie grew up in more of an abusive family. She drowned herself in her studies in hope that maybe she'll be able to get to college sooner and she did. I felt bad for her when I saw her eyes move to where her parents were supposed to be, but the seats were empty. I saw her proud stance fault a little before she sat up straight. I made a mental note to invite her to my house for dinner later, because I highly doubt her parents would care enough to make her day special when she deserved it.
Finally, it was time for the diplomas to be handed out. They handed out the diplomas first to those who gave speeches. I made sure to clap and whoop loudly for Amélie when she was getting handed hers. I could care less about what the rest of the class thinks of me. It's not like I'll be seeing them anytime soon. She looks at me and smiles, appreciation in her eyes. I shrug and shake my head as if I didn't know what she was talking about and she giggled. I grinned, happy that she wasn't sad.
Finally it was almost time for me to go up and the slight butterflies I had before had turned into angry moths, flying full force into the sides of my stomach. I was nervous, but who wouldn't be.
"Aphrodite Anders!" The lady calls out, smiling at me fondly as I stood up from my seat and I started walking up to the stage. I walk up the stairs hopefully looking effortless and not like a pregnant penguin. I walk up to the person holding my diploma and I shake their hand. They look at me proudly before letting go. I smile at them before continuing down the path looking at my mom and dad, their smiles wide and proud. I walk to the picture zone on the stage and smile brightly, excited for the future ahead of me.
