Just Another High School Story!

Everything was better now, the Leah who had seen death as the only way out was furious at her old self, she had pitied herself, rather than digging for happiness, she had let unhappiness become her routine, a routine she had hated, she was grateful for all that had happened, with all the pain had come strength, her physical and spiritual strength had increased tremendously, and she realised that as she would continue to live, she would find out more about herself, she would love herself even more than she did now, do things that she could be proud of, own the glory, and the gory, as she herself put it, the girl who had wanted to get out of her body, wanted someone else's body to be hers was now so fond and proud of her body... the body she had worked on, that she would not trade it for all the wealth in the world, she had come to terms with who she was, found the answer to questions as to what she was fond of, she had learned one important lesson, "In the end, you only have you." Sure, your loved ones can be by your side, but the one who has to fight your battles is you, even if you fail to gain something, you come to know how important things are to you, every experience is a sort of a scale, a scale that measures and records, accrues information about who you are as you live life, through all the sweat, tears, smiles etc, how else would we know who we are if we weren't on a roller coaster all the time, you will have highs and lows, you will touch the skies, you won't, either way, you will always learn something.

When she finally got ready and into the car, Ethan shut the door for her, and they drove off together, today was the day that they would have to scatter, the class of 2021 was seriously amazing, though 'high school' had been a lot of drama, she was grateful, she was 'lifesitivistic', the attitude of not taking things too hard, but not letting the little lessons that everything teaches you escape either, that is being lifesitivistic, and she still had so much to say.

When she woke up in the hospital that day, she had been greeted by flowers, cards, letters, 'Praying for you' boards, chocolates, teddy bears, her room was almost overflowing with things, then she realised that we humans can be cruel sometimes, but we were given a heart to sympathise. In the end, those who sighed and the ones who snickered were just doing their thing, you need not bother about what someone else thinks about you, if you want to do a monkey dance while walking-- not on the road, not jaywalking-- on the sidewalk, do it, life is too short, too unpredictable, and remember that you are the one sleeping with your thoughts, if you ever feel like someone's thoughts are ruining your day, screw them, say this out loud to those thoughts, as if you are saying that to the person, if you have the courage, you can just directly say it to them, "You don't have the permission to enter the safe abode that is my beautiful brain, all mean things are denied entry, just go back to disappear." This way, you aren't hating on the person, neither do their thoughts matter, think of them as waves that passed by and are never to return. It's not easy, you'll be fazed, but practice makes perfect, and positive.

As Leah was sitting in the car, she was wondering what Mindy was doing, did she understand the intensity of what she had done, and did Leah forgive her? Not yet, she soliloquised, she couldn't easily forgive the person who had pushed her off of a cliff, no one could, but she understood why Mindy did what she did, at a moment when you feel like you've lost everything, and don't know what the next moment is going to bring, you can go haywire sometimes, the darkness that surrounds you in moments of unclarity is awful and scary, she had been through moments where she was worried about losing everything; breaking, after all, is always easier than making.

They pulled up at the parking lot, Leah had not been to school or seen the kids since the famous 'incident', they were told to keep it quiet, though everyone knew about it, you could just see pitying looks from their faces, but she could care less about the people that surrounded her right now, she remembered that this was the last time, she and Ethan would show up at school and thankfully, they were together. Unlike what Mindy had told her that day, they didn't break up, at least, didn't end up broken, she had dreaded those words since the day she heard them, but all times pass. Their strength had held them together. Like electric magnets, their force had varied a little but thankfully, never died out completely. They were one.

Everyone had gathered around, and the ceremony started, people were in tears and laughter was booming, kids were snapping as many pictures as they could of the occasion and making the most out of every moment, her group greeted her after they had finished filling in seats and holding some, everything seemed fancy, since there was a prom to look forward to, everyone was super excited, especially Leah, since it was her first time attending school in a long time, she had taken a lot of breaks to attend meetings with other writers, and publishers, but she had felt that it was all for the best, she had enough creds already, she didn't need any more, yet she had missed this familiar feeling of walking through the school hall, and being controlled and disciplined and being in all kinds of clubs, meeting all kinds of seniors and juniors, familiar and unfamiliar ones, school life was seriously the best, even though she had been through tough times, there were good times too, every volleyball game, every food festival, every activity, every friend, frenemy, everything that she had felt and lived in her 'second' home came rushing back to her, and the nostalgia, rather than saddening, was surprisingly making her happy, she was not in tears yet, but everyone would be by the end of her speech.

They took their seats, and Leah saw her parents, and the parents of so many other kids cheering loudly, she was finally happy, she had everything, and normally, we want to be frozen in time when something too good happens, you want to freeze time in that moment, capture that moment, and live it again, and again, but for some reason, Leah felt like she did not want to stop, now that things were finally looking up, she wanted to be better, stronger, happier, hopefully that would happen for everyone and though there would be really sad times, and times when she would feel disappointed, everything like Birbal had said, "This time will come to pass too." And rather than thinking this when you are happy and ruining your own mood, think about it like this, "All bad times shall pass."

Leah walked to the stage, Ethan helping her with every step, she took off the mic from its holder, she sat down at the edge of the stage, every single parent, and student present held their breath, she had made quite some noise with her 'projects' already, they were looking forward to this.