I'm Awkward; It Can't Be Helped

     I'm such a 12-year-old girl when it comes to cute guys. At work last week there was this handsome fellow from sales being friendly and talking to me down in the basement and I'm sure I was just smiling like a dork happy to be there. Well, he offered me zucchini bread later so maybe it wasn't as tragic as I originally thought. You don't just hand out zucchini bread. But anyways he'll make his smooth little comments like "Nice to see you again, Katie. Maybe they could get you some windows down here, you know?" and smile so charmingly and I'm just like, "uh, ha... windows." Face palm!

Well, hey, I'm in the engineering crowd. I'm allowed to be awkward!

Right?
Haha.
I hope that flies.

Screw That and Screw You

One day I just decided to be that girl. You know, the one who doesn't put up with bullshit. I decided I had the whole world in front of me and I decided to stop wasting my time. I got mad and I got up off the floor and I left. After all that time, I really did it - I just left.

I wasn't always that girl. I used to stick around because I couldn't imagine anything different. I was scared to get pissed and start running because I honestly thought I'd somehow regret leaving him behind.

Are you kidding me?

How could I ever think that?

Hell.

I don't know.

At least now I'm that girl that can straight up leave. It doesn't matter if I wasn't for quite some time - heck, give me a break, I did finally close the door. And from then on, I became that chick who can wholeheartedly say, "screw that and screw you."

It Never Happened

It's like he doesn't exist anymore.

 I don't know how that happened. I spent two years with the guy and I can't remember a single thing about him. 

The weird thing is that I'm always the type to remember everything.

 Somehow, though, I've been blessed with this gigantic flaw in memory.

No more uneasiness.

It's like the past belongs to someone else now.

I'm new.

It never happened.

Out of site, out of mind, right?

Letter to the Yearbook

     "Where am I?" 

     It's a question I have to ask myself from time to time. On a good day, I know my physical location, but this question, hopefully, is more involved; I have to pause, think about who I am today, and wonder, "how did I get here?" At first I'm tempted to congratulate myself for following my dreams, believing in myself, and never giving up – but I soon get over that. It's taken a few years for the light bulb to go off, but now I understand what really got me through.

      I realized that our "thank you" goes out to our families, friends, and teachers. And when those simple words aren't enough, we go further to share our most genuine smiles, our longest hugs, and our most unregulated fits of joy with the people who got us through. After all, when life seemed flat, they added fizz – precisely that, along with ideas, laughter, and values. Still, we can't forget the times when people were just there for us, too. There were rough patches, undoubtedly, and those closest to us simply stayed on the phone longer or gave us their ice cream. It's wild how they don't even know how much that meant to us – how much they mean to us. May we be lucky enough to keep these people in our lives. May we never forget what got us through – or, more truthfully, who.