Today is the first day of the university that I dreamed of attending for the past five years and now here I am, standing at the entrance of it along with Elizabeth. I wore a double shaded saree, while Elizabeth wore her lucky black and white sundress.

I felt overwhelmed with happiness, anxiety but sadness demanded my attention most, out of them. I suddenly felt the loss of my mother and father's presence, their blessings giving me the needed confidence. My mother would hug me affectionately, pat and kiss my forehead telling me that everything will be alright while my father, though he was not much of talkative or expressive person, his eyes would shine with happiness and pride which does all the talk to me.

'If only my parents were here' just thinking about them made my eyes glisten with tears that I found difficult to control. I immediately waved those thoughts away clearly not ready to go through the fresh wounds again. I smiled internally cheering myself to be optimistic. Elizabeth suddenly squeezed my hand slowly in comfort and support mouthing me that 'Are you okay?'. I gave her a small smile, mentally cheering myself remembering what my mother would have told me. I took a long breath and signalled Lizzy that I was ready to enter. Smiling at each other with newfound confidence, we entered the campus, looking around grinning to ourselves.

We entered the classroom and sat in the middle rows, fifteen minutes ahead of everyone as no one except them, were there already in the room. After another ten minutes, people started pouring into the classroom and suddenly the silent room was filled with all sorts of sounds and emotions emitting from all other just like us both. Another five minutes later, a lady in her mid-fifties entered the room, smiling at everyone in there and introduced herself as Ms Reeds and she is going to be the mentor in charge of the batch till they graduate.

She asked everyone to introduce themselves. Slowly the first row started their introductions and few minutes it was mine and Lizzy's turn. Lizzy stood up introduced herself as Elizabeth Whitman who is from Canada. And then came my turn, although I appeared normal outside, I am a nervous wreck. This had always been a problem for me when it came to introductions. I would internally sweat a lot and it was no different this time.

I heaved a long sigh, got up and introduced myself, "Hello everyone, I'm Aisha Karnak from India. You can call me Aish. I majored in Law with Politics. I love to write and dance. I'm excited and happy to be here with you all and hope to create good memories." I kept my introduction talk small and simple because I would start rambling nonsense with my nervousness if I tried to talk anymore.

After the introductions of every one completed, Prof Reeds took all of us on the campus tour. The campus environment was beautiful, aesthetic and peaceful with widespread greenery. There was a park with shady, large trees and colourful flowers of different kinds. I loved it immediately and I knew there and then that I will be visiting this place often.

"Hey! I am Alison Rhys." a beautiful bubbly brunette taller than either of us, introduced herself on the campus tour. We greeted her warmly and introduced ourselves, "Hey there, we are Aisha Karnak and Elizabeth Whitman. Nice to meet you."

Alison smiled sweetly at us, " Can I be with you guys? I mean only if you don't mind. I feel like you girls are really cool so, I just want to tag along with you both." She spoke in a rush, nervousness clearly evident in her voice. We liked her then and there and welcomed her wholeheartedly.

After the university tour completed, everyone headed out as the Professor announced that, that was all for today. I decided to head out to my best friend's department. Anne Joseph, my bestie since high school who also got selected to the same University. I am very happy and relieved that at least I have Anne here with me. I don't know what I would do without her at this time. Along with Elizabeth and Alison, we took a U-turn from the park to Anne' s department.

We entered the medical department lobby, to see Anne talking to two other classmates, her back turned to them. Since she couldn't see them approaching us three, Lizzy and I decided to scare her. We both crept slowly behind her back, with Alison following us confused, she whispered to me "Hey, why are you both suddenly acting weird and creeping behind her?". I and Lizzy smiled at each other wickedly at her question.

"You will know soon," answered Lizzy.

"Boo!"

"Baah!" I and Lizzy yelled into Anne's ears at the same time, shook her shoulders wildly.

Anne screamed loudly, turning around, " Aah! You stupids! You both scared me to death." she glared at them.

"An-An stop being a drama queen. You are the only human in the whole world who gets scared of the mere sounds in this broad daylight." Aisha teased her while she and Lizzy laughed loudly, giving each other a Hi-Fi.

"God! I can't believe you both are my friends. I must have done great sins in my past life." Anne face palmed several times dramatically, trying to control the smile. A throat clearing made all the three to come out of their own crazy world and look at Alison who looked clearly confused at their dramatic acts.

"Oops, Sorry! Anne this is Alison Rhys, she is a psychologist from Canada and Alison, this is Anne Joseph, my overdramatic best friend." I introduced them to each other.

"Aisha Karnak!" Anne glared at me to which I winked and blew her a kiss.

"Okay, enough with the romance, both of you. Shall we leave now?" Elizabeth asked.

"Uh-oh, I don't think so Liz, I have a seminar to attend, it starts in an hour. You guys go back, I'll be back after two." Anne informed.

"Fine then, you will be missing my famous lasagna then." Anne and I laughed out loud hearing her talk about her cooking.

"Yeah, yeah, Sure. The only food you can make without burning the whole apartment." Elizabeth scowled at us, her cheeks flushing. Alison tried her best to contain her laughter but couldn't, eliciting a whine from Lizzy.

"Fine. Let's go before the staff kicks us out." I dragged a whining Liz out, Alison following us. Unfortunately, Alison lives with her Aunt's family, we bade goodbye to her and left for the dorm.

We were passing by the park we came through and saw a commotion there. People were cheering and hollering. We decided to see what's going on there and approached the crowd and pushed past them towards the front and that's when I forgot to breathe for the second time.