I threw my cap up in the air. Cheers erupted coupled with clapping. I watched it fall down then picked it back up, picking freshly clipped grass off of it before putting it on my head. My fellow graduates flocked in groups hugging and talking loudly. She found me and snuck up behind me for a hug. I patted her hand and twisted around to see her.

“Congratulations to us!” she squealed.

I nodded.

Senior year had finally come to an end. My high school life was officially over. We were eighteen and headed in different directions.

In the last year something had changed inside of me. I went from chasing after what I could never have to spending my weekends drunk to finally finding my clarity. Whether it was entirely intentional or not, I had finally broken the chain that bound me to her. I broke away from our mutual friends and made my own. We hadn’t had a fight. No teenage drama had come between us. There was no disagreement that had sparked our gradual drift from each other. It had happened as naturally as I had been drawn to her. Then as I drifted further from her grasp I became sober. I found someone who loved me as I was. My world seemed to be wide open for the first time in years.

I smiled at her and gave a final hug before saying goodbye.

I found my own happiness. It just wasn’t with her. If I could go back to the suffering teenager who chased after something that wasn’t meant to be I actually wouldn’t tell her what I know now. I’d still let her walk that path. In the end, everything fell into place. What was meant to be came to be.