Teacher's Girl (Aflyingwhale)

EMMA’s POV : 

All the senior kids were hung-over.

How could they not? They were all drinking until daylight at Madison’s party.

Everyone except Tiff, Carrie, and I.

We stayed up all night, though, going through this pros and cons list.

The result of the list was still inconclusive, but it had to wait.

It was eight in the morning and my friends and I had somewhere else to be.

By the time I got to school in my cap and gown, I was already on my third cup of coffee.

Dad whipped out his old camcorder and he was following me around everywhere with a proud smile on his face.

Mom couldn't stop crying, she actually brought a roll of toilet paper in her handbag.

I was super jittery and I was sweating buckets as I sat on my chair amongst my fellow classmates.

The ceremony was being held outdoors, in the school courtyard.

The sun was shining so bright and I was feeling lightheaded.

I barely had breakfast, except for half a toast and three cups of black coffee.

And the worst part about this was that I had to get up on stage and deliver a salutatorian speech.

I was pretty sure I looked like a train wreck and make up could only go so far.

With my nervous and shaky legs, I heard my name being called out and I had to walk up that stage and stood on the podium.

On my way up there, all I was hoping for was that I didn’t fall on my butt and embarrass myself in front of hundreds of people.

And phew, at least we got that part down.

Standing on the podium, I looked out to the sea of people.

I was clamping up immediately.

But when I looked at my fellow classmates, I saw Tiff, Carrie, Mark, and Tyler cheering at the top of their lungs for me.

That made me smile and I calmed down a bit.

I took a deep breath and opened the folded up paper in my hand, preparing to speak.

"Welcome friends, family, and teachers.Without all of you, I wouldn't be where I am today.It is an honor to be standing before you on such a memorable occasion.I would like to start out by thanking my wonderful parents, mom for your loud constant push and dad for your silent strong support.Despite all my ups and downs, you two are always proud of me and I am so proud to be your daughter and I want to continue making you proud to be my parents,"

I looked to the crowd and I found my parents sitting on the front seat.

Mom was halfway through her toilet paper roll already and dad could barely hold the camcorder up.Still, he was smiling at me and giving me a thumb up.

"Now, I would like to address my fellow classmates.Let's admit it guys, it's been one hell of a ride.We came through these doors four years ago, confused and excited.And here we are today, standing in our graduation caps and gowns, still as confused and excited,"

I turned to my classmates and they let out a laugh.

"After today, all of us are going to different places to start a new journey.I don't know about you, but I’m absolutely unprepared.My friends and I stayed up all night last night and we came up with this pros and cons list.Basically, I was trying to make an adult decision about where I see my life is going.

adulthood,"

My classmates clapped and cheered in agreement.I waited for a while until the noise died down before continuing.

thing about being prepared is...there’s no such thing.You can never be prepared for life.Life just happens sometimes.The best thing you can do is to admit that you don't have it all together and you may never will, and that's okay.Life isn't about always being in control, making things perfect, winning all the time, and getting away scathe free.Sometimes it’s about taking risks, breaking the rules, falling in love, getting

it landed on

lan and

smiling from ear to ear as our eyes met, meanwhile lan

as a wise person once taught me, all those things may end up being the best parts

a small smile directed atlan.

forward, I hope that we would be brave

enough to make mistakes, to break the

in love.Laugh with your

with

said, the greatest lesson in life

I

dad were literally jumping in their

hugs as I made

did

came up after me because he was the valedictorian and it was his time to

her boyfriend as Mark walked to

all cheered and clapped for him, and a bunch of guys sitting at the back was laughing

of 2018! We made it all!"he shouted into the microphone as soon as he got up there and everyone responded with

put up with a

love you

far.If you don't believe me, just think back to freshman year.We were all ugly and awkward people.We were going through puberty and we thought Kanye West was

school.The world is going to discourage us and tell us things that make us doubt ourselves.Don’t give in to that bull.You just keep

and these guys stood up with painted cardboard

said: FUCKTHEREST! : "Do what you love, and that,"he said again and everyone erupted in

but it was too late to do anything

class

the literal mic drop.  We all stood on our feet and

exactly what we all needed to hear and exactly what Mark always wanted to do for himself

he was always ‘perfect’, but this

We all did.

be the most real

year, Tiff had finally found a guy that she was

and her relationship to the limit and found that she could be more than she

as for Tyler...He was so well beyond his years, I had no doubts he would do great things

ceremony was over, I ran to my mom and dad

more pictures with my

hugging everyone, thanking all my teachers and saying goodbye to

lan and Hailey standing a wee bit away from

me like they wanted to see me, so while my parents were busy talking to Tiff and Carrie's parents, I sneaked away and went up to

Congratulations!"Hailey pulled me into a hug as I got

shoved a bouquet of sunflowers and said, "We

beautiful,"I smiled

"Congratulations,"lan said.

looked up

speech, it was so great, especially the

lan quickly cut her

a

sure.I'll be

sheepishly and

Hailey was

"So..."I said.

standing

far away from everyone, it was still in the school

your speech.It was

nervous, I thought I was

great.Absolutely brilliant,"he smiled that mega-watt smile, the smile that always made my knees