FOREVER AND ALWAYS ━━━━ jasper hale.

41- Everything

"Inhale the future, exhale the past."

-Unknown

***

"When we were five, they asked us what we wanted to be when we grow up. Our answers were anything from a president, to a astronaut, or in my case, a princess. When we were ten they asked again. We answered a rock star, cowboy, or in my case, gold-medalist."

I grinned up at Jessica as she did her speech. She was nervously shifting back and forth on her feet, but as each word passed, she seemed to loosen up more and more. I know what you're thinking. "Courtney, what stupid thing did you do for your speech?"

Stay tuned, my friends.

"But now that we're grown up, they want a serious answer. Well how about this: Who the hell knows?"

The senior burst into cheers at that. I sat next to Bella, since we have the same last names, and she is a B and I am a C.

"This isn't the time to make hard and fast decisions, it is the time to make mistakes. Take the wrong train and get stuck somewhere, fall in love... a lot."

I giggled softly at that.

"Major in philosophy because there is no way to get a career out of that. Change your mind, and change it again. Make as many mistakes as you can, because that way, when they ask us the same question again... we won't guess, we'll know."

I couldn't help but cheer along at Jess's speech. It was good, for a girl that told me she thought peanut butter was a meat.

"Now I'm handing the mic over to my friend, Courtney Swan."

I sucked in a deep breath, and grinned at Jess, muttering a 'good job' when we passed.

I stood in front of the whole school, letting my eyes rake over the growing crowd. I grinned. "High school sucked."

A round of vivacious cheering from the students nearly took away my hearing, but it only made my smile wider and my heartbeat calmer. "I'm just telling the truth. High school was hard. We were expected to be adults, but we were treated like children. We had to find a balance between too much work and not enough work, man, it was exhausting."

Another round of clapping.

"But..." I bowed my eyes, smiling slightly. "I haven't even been here the full four years. I came last year as a nervous wreck. I didn't even have friends at first... until this super weird, short, beautiful girl approached me in a parking lot."

I caught Alice's eye, and she gave me the biggest smile I have ever received in my life.

"I have changed a lot over the last year. I learned more about life then I did about trigonometry, I learned more about commitment, and relationships then I did about historical events that changed the face of our world. I made new friends, and kept old ones." I pointed to J|essica in the crowd. "You know Jessica? Yeah, well when I first came here I hated her."

The whole auditorium gave that a hearty laugh, and I did too, shaking my head "Haha, I'm not kidding."

I grinned at Jessica. "But now she is one of the best friends I have ever had. I think that's what high school was supposed to be about. Less about stress and work, and worrying about your G.P.A... more about building the future you want to have when you leave. Make friends that you'll have for the rest of your life, and if you don't have them for the rest of your life, that is okay. It's okay to aim for the stars, and end up falling back to Earth. It's okay to walk on crutches if you can't support yourself without them. It's okay to be 'just good enough' because what kind of world would this be if everyone was the best at everything? It wouldn't be a world, it would be a cartoon."