❛ this love is good, this love
is bad. this love is alive, back
from the dead. these hands had
to let it go free, and this love
came back to me. ❜
꒰ 🐚 ꒱ؘ ࿐ ࿔*:･ﾟ
𝐈𝐍 𝐖𝐇𝐈𝐂𝐇... ꒱ ↷🖇
tatum smith comes back to cousins
after a year and a half...
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──────────── this love. 𝐄𝐏𝐈𝐒𝐎𝐃𝐄 𝐎𝐍𝐄, 𝘓𝘖𝘝𝘌 𝘓𝘖𝘚𝘛 𝟢𝟤𝟨. you're on your own, kid
VALEDICTORIAN WAS AN achievement in every form. It was a symbol that said I made it. It was the official label that you were the best. Receiving that title should have been a privilege, but to Tate it was a burden.
There was so much going on in her life and they wanted to her write a speech. A speech! A speech about how wonderful her high school career had been, how wonderful her senior year had been. It was shit.
Standing on the stage, behind the podium with her family and classmates eyes on her, waiting for a breath-taking speech was the worst feeling in the world.
"Uhm.... hi." The microphone squeaks and it feels like Tate's ears a bleeding. Her face scrunches up before she takes another breath, calming her nerves quickly. "Uhm... hi, I'm Tatum, or Tate as a lot of you know me."
She shakes her head. "Sorry, I'm just really nervous."
She looks around the room and she meets her mother's eyes, mouthing the words 'breathe' to her.
Tate closes her eyes and takes a moment to control her thoughts. She blocks out the thoughts of what Conrad may doing and the fact that Susannah should be here to witness her speech. She blocks out everything and tries to remember the words she scribbled on a piece of paper a few short weeks ago.
"They say everything happens for a reason, but, honestly, I think that's bullshit. Sorry, Mom." The gymnasium erupts with laughter. "Sometimes there is no reason for the world's events. There's no reason as to why things are the way they are. There's no reason why people come into your life or why they leave it. Why they stay or why they go. There's not always a good to the bad and there's no always a lesson to be learned. It sucks, but it's true."
"And yet, life goes on no matter what. People rise and fall. People make monuments and people mistakes. People breakup and people have breakthroughs. People come and people go. There's no stopping it and there's certainly no avoiding it. There's times where everyone just wants to... give up, but somehow we're all still standing."
"We're all still here despite whatever weird obstacles the world thrown at us, and believe me, this school year has had some weird obstacles. Yet, we're all sitting here today, wearing our caps and our gowns, accepting our diplomas and moving onto the next chapter of our lives."
"Life isn't a book, though. Just because a new chapter starts doesn't mean the other has to end. It doesn't mean we can't still hold onto that piece of us that we had. That's always something to hold onto. That's what I want everyone to do. Hold onto this. Hold onto what you had and what you knew. Hold onto this year and all the years before it because they will always be the best years of your life. Don't be afraid to move on, because there's no reason to, but hold onto every part of you that you knew. Because every part of you has lead to who you are and where you are."
