The Road Less Traveled (Prof./Student)

Chapter 58 - Her turn

POV: Alex 

I felt the nerves rushing through my body as I watched her walking along the hall and on stage. Her hips swaying from left to right, I wondered if she did it on purpose or if she was just always, and without even trying, this irresistably sexy and confident..I had to swallow but watched her, excited to hear her words. 

Stepping in front of the microphone she began:

"When I thought about what I could possibly tell you to give us this chance, I realised that the majority of you doesn't even know me. And why should someone vote for a person they know nothing about? So I figured that I should tell you something about myself...And what story I chose might surprise you, but the more I think about it, the better it describes who I am.

I've grown up loving fairytales."

Her statement made me grin, pictures of her younger self popping up in my head. However, I quickly cleared my head as she continued:

"It's true. I've possibly read every single one that exists, multiple times. I only ever needed to read the first famous words 'once upon a time' and I've instantly found myself in a special place, once I came in contact with it, I craved to visit it again and again.

It was this world, so foreign and far away from ours and yet so near and similar, that got me excited. Those mysteries, secrets and fights confronted with the power of love and the hope for a world in which only the good exists, made me wanting the same.

I wanted a prince on a horse, coming to get me and save me from the troubles that are inevitable in life. The more romantic, the better. I wanted to know the love that was described so impeccable, so breathtaking and utterly beautiful in those stories. And that no matter what problems we would face, be it a mean stepmother or a jealous sister, we would win. And live happily ever after. That's what I longed for. My life being a fairytale.

But you grow up and, eventually, you loose interest in these stories. And for me, it wasn't just that I lost interest, I began to really dislike them. You know why?"

Honestly, I had no idea. But that was one of the things that I loved about her. Her mind, that was thinking in directions I never knew were possible, never stopped to amaze me. And so seemed to be the rest of the audience too. We all waited to hear her reason. And after a short break, she explained:

"Because I realised that, yes every story ends with love as the winner and the couple being happy. But every story ended after a kiss, after a proposal or after a marriage. They never went beyond that. And that's what was annoying me so much.

Because, for me, it always ended at the beginning. A kiss, a proposal or a marriage, that's not an ending for me.

That's when everything truly begins.

Ends are often written before beginnings, but I wasn't satisfied with just an happy ending. I wanted to know more about the beginning that would follow.

So, I turned to literature and poetry in the hopes of finding a beginning to my end. And, considering the fact that I'm now standing in front of you as a former student of this university with a passion for literature, you can conclude that I found what I was looking for. Or at least, I found something to begin with. In fact, I'm still constantly reading, to learn more about what happens after everything went right. Because there is not the answer to my question. There are millions. One beginning being more predictable than the other.

And if you'd ask me which I like more, the predictable one or the unexpected, I would tell you that it's the latter. Because from all the reading that I've done and the experiences that I've made, I learned one thing.