It's September and I need a roommate. I couldn't live in the dorms anymore. I was fed up of being paired with idiots. I was done sharing my kitchen and my bathroom with an entire floor. When I signed the lease for my apartment, I did it with the guy...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
It's February and I go out for lunch with my dad.
I'm close with both of my parents and we stay in touch as much as we can and try to see each other often too, but my dad's made a point to have these lunch dates with me and my sister's separately. He takes them very seriously.
My father is such a sweetheart. Growing up, my sister and I always knew that if we wanted something, we had to ask our father. Our mom is the disciplinarian, but our dad is a big softie.
He always says that we might be twins, but we're not the same person. I love my father. I love how even when we were growing up it was important to be fair to us and to make sure we were always both happy in the shared activities that we did, even with things as simple as the movies we would watch.
Eloise always wanted movies with animals or princesses and I never asked for anything and Dad was always worried I didn't get to listen to what I wanted. I didn't want to admit that my sister choices were fine with, but that watching the princess' movies made me sad because I wanted a prince of my own. I didn't care about the princesses. I remember thinking I wish I could be a girl so I could also kiss the pretty boys.
My parents never said anything that made me think that kissing a boy would be wrong, but I sort of knew it, unconsciously, that it wasn't the norm. And then I met my parent's friends, Georgia and Roxane and they were two women and they would kiss each other and suddenly I had this epiphany. Girls could kiss girls, so boys could probably kiss boys too.
But then school started and kids were mean and quickly I realized that if I wanted to fit in I couldn't be a boy that kissed boys.
That was a sad realization.
So we're eating lunch at a restaurant, catching up. Dad tells me about everything happening at home with Mom and I tell him what's happening with me here.
"College is almost over," he mentions at one point.
I nod, staring at my food. "I know."
"Do you want to go to grad school?"
I breathe deeply. "Part of me likes the idea of the stability it brings, just staying in school, but another part of me..." I trail.
"Is ready for something new?" Dad finishes for me.
"Yeah, I guess."
He smiles at me. "You're so much like your mother."
I chuckle. "Of course, we're both fabulous."
Dad is smiling at me softly again. "Do what you feel is right kid. It's okay if it's not the right decision. It's okay if you regret it. You're young, you're allowed not to know. And nothing says you can't go to grad school later. You know how long it took me to get my PhDs," he says jokingly.
"I wish I had things figured out more, the way you and Mom did," I admit. My parents always sort of knew what they wanted out of life. I'm not sure I do.
"It's okay if you're not like us Eliah. You can carve your own way. You know how proud of you your mother and I are."
Sometimes I think my parents just support me so much because they have to, they're my parents, not because I actually deserve it. Of course I won't admit that. Instead I joke. "You just hate my marvellous taste in men."
He rolls his eyes but says, "I trust that you'll make the right decision when it counts."
"I don't know, I'm not above marrying my penpal convict." That one earns me a laugh.
"Well, hey everyone can make mistakes, you can too. Hell your mother dated Scott for years."
