It was the Monday of Finals Week last quarter, and I had just about had enough. I sat in the empty break-room at work, trying to keep my sobs from bursting out, worrying and stressing out about how I was going to get everything done. It wasn’t like I had been dawdling – an emergency baby-sitting opportunity had cropped up on Friday night, and I had worked the entire weekend as well. Combined with the stress of studying for finals, I had already not been in the best of moods that morning.

"We should probably get out of here" breathed Stephen. "Like right now."

But Nora was curious. She was determined that whatever had caused her father to be traumatized in his early days was all either a hallucination, or some maniac determined to ruin other people's normal lives. And she was going to prove it. She took out her phone and tapped on the camera app, which was quickly becoming useless in the approaching darkness.

"No." Her voice shook when she said it, and it was then that she noticed that she was scared as well.

I woke up on December 31st feeling relieved. 2013 was not an awful year until I realized that I was giving my all to someone who didn't feel the same way, and that my friends didn't feel like my friends anymore, and that I had sorely neglected my overall education for my first two years of high school.
New Year's Eve was wonderful. I went to an old friend's house and we shot off a firework display that would put Macy's New Year's Eve to shame. I felt optimistic, I felt happy. It was 2014, and I would get a fresh start.

So, ladies and gentlemen, I have a story for you. My darling, the love of my life, flew up today to stay for a week and while he was here, he asked me to marry him. I feel absolutely spoiled, and I'm so happy!! He is the sweetest, goofiest, most perfect guy I've ever known, and I'm the luckiest girl in the world.
Anyway, I am just bubbling over right now, and I wanted to share this with everyone!
Much love,
Bridget

I’m waiting for you,
You told me you’d come.
And I’ll keep on waiting
‘Til this world is gone.

I’m waiting for you,
In this cold, dark place.
Hoping by chance
I will see your bright face.

I’m waiting for you,
Though the hours grow long.
But I must keep waiting
And singing this song.

I’m waiting for you,
My head in my hands.
It’s sure getting harder
I don’t understand.

I’m crying so quietly,
Thinking of you.
And I feel the pain
As my heart breaks in two.

Fear: A Silver Lining.

“The only thing we have to fear, is but fear itself...”

President Franklin Roosevelt said this on March 4, 1933. The reason why is because of the financial problems with the whole nation during the Great Depression. During those sad times, many died in the inside before their physical body deteriorated.

Bestest.

The word was bittersweet in her mouth as she gazed down at me. I was actually taller than her, I knew that for a fact, but she was wearing those intimidating stilettos again. I had an awful time balancing in a pair of heels. I don’t know how she did it. And anyway, it didn’t matter. I wasn’t a stiletto type of girl.

“So you had fun?”

DISCLAIMER: Contains mature thematic content (i.e. mentions drunk driving, one strong word edited with asterisks)

Hornets buzz in my blacked-out brain:
panicked, shrill, harpy-sweet.
Rough hands clamp my shoulders, press into stillness,
the motionless frenzy of deer before dogs
devour their entrails.

Two syllables as a question: my name
in a strange infliction. I pull away.
To him, it’s only another incident
to file downtown. Forms, testimonies
-- They’re my friends,
not a two-inch newspaper column,
an item next to idle gossip and
foreign wars.

I haven't yet really read in depth all of the articles that you girls have been writing about growing older/growing up, but since the similar idea has been on my mind, I decided to write one too. Apparently mine is a lot longer, and what I thought would just be a one page musing, became a four page essay. I hope that you'll enjoy these gatherings of my stories and thoughts about growing up. I hope one of the young men on here will write one too, because so far, it seems like just "us girls" type of thing. :)

May God bless you.
_____________