Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Graduation Day
The last few months of high school were filled with celebrations for Ella— prom, pep rallies, yearbook signing, and her beautiful love story.
On this particular exuberant morning, Ella woke up to get ready for school. She had butterflies in her stomach and there was certain queasiness. She felt like she had misplaced something or she was forgetting something. She finally got ready and heaved a long relieved sigh.
She squealed as she saw her acceptance letter. For the past few months, she had been thinking about what she wants to do with her life. One day alone with a clear mind and soul, she realized what she wanted.
She wanted to be an architect.
She applied to many colleges. She was a little heartbroken when she got rejected from Harvard, Stanford, and Yale. But she couldn't believe it when she got into the University of California, Berkeley.
She ran down the stairs. "Matthew! I'm ready!"
She saw her father at the bottom of the stairs waiting for her, she jumped in his arms as he twirled his daughter around. "I'm so proud of you, pumpkin" he kissed her head multiple times. Caroline joined the hug and they squished Ella between them.
"I can't believe you're leaving. It feels like yesterday when it was your first day of school and now my baby is graduating and leaving for college soon" Caroline cried hugging Ella as her life depends on it.
"California feels so far away, pumpkin" Matthew sniffled, trying to hold in his tears.
"Mom! Dad! I'm not leaving tomorrow. Come on! You guys are making me cry," she said in a trembling voice as tears filled up in her eyes.
The Carter family cried for few minutes before they all left for Ella's graduation.
Matthew glanced at his daughter through the rearview. "Do you remember what we used to do when I used to drop you at kindergarten?"
Ella grinned. "Yes," she squealed happily.
Ella, Matthew, and Caroline sang in unison. "Fifty little duck went swimming one day over the hills and far away, mommy duck says Quack! Quack! Quack! Quack! And only forty-nine little ducks came back"
