The October Amaryllis

Epilogue - August 12th, 2094 ????

Look, I'm not going to claim that my life became perfect after my McDonald's epiphany, but things definitely improved after that.

The rest of my teen years were unremarkable, but they certainly weren't as bad as when I was sixteen. I learned how to cope with my issues without hitting my leg and even stopped binging on food. I told my mom exactly what I was going through, and she took me to a counselor, which helped me massively. Opening up definitely helped ease a lot of the pain.

I still remember the first time I went to my counselor. A part of me thought about how none of it would help me, but I was wrong. She taught me DBT and FAST skills, which stand for Fair, Apologies, Sticking to Your Values, and Truthful. I still apply these skills daily.

After graduating from high school, I went to Seattle University and met Madelynn there crazily enough. It was a bit strange having to introduce myself again, but I think I did a decent job. She's one of the very few people I told about my hallucinations. I did it without mentioning the time travel part, obviously. Oh, and she ended up getting that quote tattooed!

When I turned twenty-five, we became married, and that was the happiest day of my life. My mom was there, and her old personality was back; she had finally coped with the loss of my father. Grace, Analee, and Dante also showed up, and we all danced to Dancing Queen by ABBA together. Grace is married now; her husband Robert is one of the most brilliant people I have ever met.

Analee found someone, too. She introduced me to this return missionary guy named Seth, and I got nothing but good vibes from him. I'm glad she has someone; she deserves to be loved.

After I graduated from college, I became an English teacher. I'll be honest; I mainly chose it as a profession to help myself with my writing. Still, it was the perfect job for me. My favorite thing I learned when studying English was anagrams; it's when you create a new word using the letters of a particular word.

Back to Madelynn, we had two beautiful daughters named Hannah and Grace, the latter of which I named after my cousin. When my first child, Hannah, was born, I cried from joy. You have no idea what happiness is until you start your own family.

Occasionally, when I'm really stressed, my hallucinations come back. They're mostly minor. Usually, it's just one spider crawling around my room. Thankfully, I haven't seen the Hat Man or whatever his name is.

You might be asking how I feel about my rapidly approaching death; to that, I say that I welcome it. Death doesn't scare me anymore; it's almost like a reward of a sort. Death is just the credits scene in a movie. If it comes, let it, I've tasted happiness. I've experienced true love.

Whatever you do, don't make the same mistakes I did. If you do, you'll spend the rest of your life in regret.

And there's nothing worse than that.