The Teacher's A Student

i

Raindrops on the glass window were trickling down, as if they were on the downward spiral just waiting for their depressive state to end - but it just keeps getting worse and worse. Isn't it funny how metaphors like this can relate to your own life? As if you are the small droplets of rain gliding down the glass just waiting to hit the bottom and shatter.

"Lia, listen carefully. I don't care what you do on the campus but whatever you do can, and will not include any boys. You're far too young and have so much of your life ahead of you to be wasting your time on that"

Wasting my energy to look at my mom was not the goal - therefore i kept staring at the raindrops wondering what path they would glide down if someone from above controlled their every move. The path they would have glided down would perhaps have been easy but not fulfilling.

"Are you listening? If you as much as imagined to start seeing a boy just have in the back of your mind, that i won't accept that!" I mentally rolled my eyes. Her going on about this was not my ideal way of starting college. It actually wasn't even on the list.

"Carmen, be reasonable. The girl is turning 18 in a few months-"

"I don't care! It's not what's best for her and frankly, it shouldn't even matter. She should focus on getting her degree so she can get far with her career. A well-established education is far more important than thinking about relationships at such a young age." She then turned around to look at me with a look of disbelief.

"Lia, there are far more important things so don't even consider it. It's not even up for discussion: it will not happen. Period" I just stared at her wondering if i should agree or shit on it. For all she knows, I'm just studying. The minor details don't always have to be said if it doesn't hurt anyone.

My dad looked in his mirror at me with a look of sympathy. I appreciated him trying to stick up for me but he knows that my mom is tough to break. That's why I never said anything. I know that it won't help anything but make the situation worse than what it already is.

Driving up to the campus was intimidating. There were hundreds of people arriving. And they all looked so much cooler than me.

yikes.

Most of them also looked particularly older than me - that may or may not, have been due to my ridiculously low height. Or that i literally look like an abnormal, overgrown baby.

Though i must admit, the boys here looked quite appealing - not that i even can do anything about that if you ask Carmen Valeria Reyes-Miller. A literal tongue twister. I know my mom is just trying to look out for me, in case I end up in the same miserable state I was before. I mean, can you blame her? I was wrecked.

The car abruptly stopped right outside the entrance to Stanford. Looking at the building, I was even more terrified of how the next four years were going to turn out. Everything and everyone here looked so well thought out - like they had everything figured out before even starting. While I'm contemplating sneaking out of this car just to run to the nearest In-N-Out where I belong. There I can mend with my own kind of people.