It was a day like any other one.
Got up, fed my only companions (My cats, eclipse, and Luna, which are both Bombays) in this life, then headed straight to the bathroom. (I was still exhausted but at least there wasn’t much distance to walk since the so-called apartment just consists of one room and a bathroom.) Then I wrote till midnight as I did every day.
This studio was all I could afford after I dropped out of high school. This was not like me at all. I used to adore school. Even though it was for my friends and not the academics, I still had the motivation to do schoolwork and was good at it. After the school, my parents worked in burned down (They were both teachers), my feelings started to change towards them.
I wısh that day I was never upset over the test results I had just received. It was nothing compared to my parent’s lives. I came home and just wanted to be alone. My parents worked in a different school (Due to their policies I couldn’t go there), so I was lucky that they weren’t home yet.
Just as I was changing out of my uniform, my mom called saying that they had parent-teacher conferences and wouldn’t make it home on time. I was already mad and told her they could stay there as long as they wanted. I know it was not their fault and though I wanted to be alone I guess deep down, I wanted them home.
When they still hadn’t come home after hours, I started to worry. And I was right. The morning after, I got a call from the police. They were calling relatives of the deceased. And I was the only family they had contact to identify the bodies.
Apparently, an electrical fire had started because one of the outlets wasn’t properly installed. The fire started on one of the lower floors so there was no way out. When I got there, every corner of the street was filled with crying people. It was heartbreaking to see how many people the fire had affected. One of the officers approached and helped me.
After I came home I was still a mess. The firefighters had stopped the fire but many people still died from carbon monoxide poisoning. My parents were two of those people.
My life was downhill from that moment on.
I started school a year late so, luckily, even though I was in 11th grade, I was 18 and didn’t have to deal with those foster care workers. But the money my parents left me wasn’t endless either. I had to start making a living eventually.
Living with inherited money isn’t always the most comfortable. As I mentioned, my parents are teachers, and it’s a miracle that I’m even able to afford two other living beings’ expenses other than my own.
I remembered seeing an article online about how to make a living writing books in parts and articles online. Started to publish my first book online and gained quite a following. I had always found peace in writing and how letting my feelings out onto the keyboard made me feel. So, I started to plan my book series, and 2 years later, my book is going to be printed out. But still, it won’t make a difference if it doesn’t get sold out because contrary to how many people think, it is not a very profitable business if you do it online. So, everything depends on my book’s release and that won’t happen until months later.
It was very close to my birthday. It had been two years but I was still not used to celebrating it without my parents. So, a few of my friends and I got together and decided to celebrate it together.
That day was one of my happiest in the last two years. I posted about it on my social media and somehow it made its way to a chain bookstore that wanted to sponsor some authors on a winter trip in the mountains since they were launching 10 new locations around the country.
The trip was nothing like I expected. I thought it was just going to be another boring trip that influencers always post about on social media. But it was really fun. There were so many events and activities you could do like hot chocolate workshops and skiing areas since it was winter.
One night, I decided to go on a walk to clear my mind. After all, I know that these few years have been hard on me and I need to take in what happened and make peace with myself. So I grabbed a mug of coffee and a book on my way out.
I decided to walk on the pathway just outside of the hotel. It must’ve been at most an hour when I found a spot that looked like a literal winter wonderland. There was a frozen lake and snow-covered trees that reminded me of white cotton candy.
I sat down on the bench near the view. I realized I couldn’t look away every time I saw a school anymore. I needed to let go of the memories with no future. I needed to learn a lesson from the past and continue with the good in the future. I must’ve sat there for about an hour just reminiscing about the moments I’d had before I realized that the sun was setting.
I got up and started to walk toward the hotel but I think I got a little lost because I stumbled upon a shining building in the woods. The building was intriguing so I approached it further.
It turns out that the huge, impressive building I saw while walking through the pitch blackness of the damp, cold night was a school. Its lights illuminated every nook and cranny, ridiculing the sombre, silent cloak of the night like a persistent mustard stain on funeral attire. The street was still dark, but it felt brighter in my inner world.
After the trip ı realized that I wanted to be like my parents and the school I saw. I wanted to brighten the lives of people who weren’t as lucky as I am. So, I returned to school, studied hard, and went on to graduate from one of the best literature programs in the country.
Maybe if it wasn’t for the school I saw that night, I wouldn’t be as happy and at peace with myself as I am now.
I learned to appreciate every little thing in my life.