[Youth and school life + lingering regrets + bittersweet ending]
I was eighteen, and still the child “with no parents to look after me.” My secret crush on him was also the only thing that helped me endure my loneliness. Later, he drew close, then drifted away, as if nothing had happened. But I was no longer the little girl who hid under the covers and cried. The day my college acceptance letter arrived after the entrance exams, my parents called and said, “You’ve made us proud.” I smiled on my end of the line. I had waited eighteen years to hear those words, but somehow, they didn’t seem so important anymore.
