I was just a seventeen year old, below the average teenage girl, who was excited for a new change from the everyday dullness and repetition - college life! I thought my life would carry on like everyone else’s, but who knows that a damn flower pot fallen from the sky has completely changed everything. Exactly, just a damn flower pot had sent me straight to another world!

[Sign…..]

……….Flash back……….

Today was such a beautiful summer day! A perfect day for a graduation ceremony.

I couldn't believe I have made it to this day, really.

Our eyes watered a bit during the principal's warming speech. All the hard work and time spent together with the classmates goes through the mind like a movie. High school life was definitely hard, often lacking sleep and looking like a panda with two baggy eyes in class. All we did in school was study, study, and more study!

Aye….

We did indeed work super hard these four years. Although I would surely miss some of my friends and teachers, I was very much glad that it was finally over!

Yippee!

When the ceremony was over, I ran toward Mom and Dad in the big crowd.

“Nana, your graduation hat is a bit off-sided. Dad will be doing lots of photos today, my sweetheart needs to be the cutest of all! Come here, let me fix it for you!”

I tilted my head forward, so Mom can use some hair pins to secure the hat in place. Her smile was very warm. There was a strong sense of pride written on their faces, which in some ways warmed my heart, considering the seventeen years they had to put up with me. Afterall, dealing with a troublesome and crazy daughter was not an easy job. So many times in high school, I thought of giving up, especially when taking the college entrance exam.

I was just not the smartest kid in school.

Fortunately, unlike so many of my friends which their parents put a ton of pressure on studies, set high expectations, and even verbally abused them for being dumb as a pig, my parents never gave me hard times. All they did was encourage me to do better next time. Having such laid back parents was extremely rare here, I was just very lucky.

Or….. the truth could be that my parents had completely given up long long ago.

As they know, an “A” on the exam would be impossible.

No matter how hard I studied, my scores were always consistently close to the passing line. Improvements were slow as a snail’s crawl.

There was a difference between a genius and an ordinary person. By the way, I was the latter, or even much less than that. Of course my parents were proud. For someone so mediocre to survive high school and even get into a college, they probably never expected me to accomplish all these.

Well…..you see, having low expectations usually made life a bit easier for most parents.

Although it was not one of those top-notch colleges in the city, at least it was a higher institution. That was all that matters in my case.

“Mom, what can I do without you?” I hugged her arms after she fixed my graduation hat.

She chuckled, “Just a few more months you will be legally announced as an adult, still acting like a baby. ”

“Oh…just keep reminding me of all the responsibilities. Mom, life is hard.”

“Life is a piece of hard candy, you just need to be patient to get the sweetness out of it.”

I pouted, “I wish it’s a big blob of cotton candy, that would not hurt my teeth to bite it.”

“Nana, can’t you see Daddy is super sour over here,” Dad complained with a grin.

I hurried and gave him a big hug, “Oh, Dad, don’t be a lemon, of course you are the best too!”

Dad smiled, “Mom is right, you will be a grown up soon, and need to be responsible and can’t be so mischievous anymore. By the way, tonight we are throwing a celebration party for you!”

A few of my friends came over to chat. Dad was busy taking photos of me and my classmates and teachers. All these memories were captured and stored in the camera.

“Ok, kiddos, it’s time for some group photos. Get together now, taller students in the back please, organize according to heights,” one of our teachers said.

I was a very conscious person, therefore ran to the front and found a comfortable spot and looked toward the camera. My best friend Lan stood next to me.

“All right, everyone says cheese!”

“Cheese!”

After a clicking sound, the group photo was taken. Everyone’s smile shone with sparkly eyes. Soon countless graduation hats were thrown into the blue sky. I looked at all the flying hats, and suddenly felt that my future would be as bright as the sunshine.

The photo shoot was finally over.

There were so many graduation hats laying on the grass. We all just ended up picking a random hat.

I patted the hat lightly to free any dust, as I looked ahead through the crowd at the classroom buildings. We spent four years in those buildings, disliked them so much, and complained about how old and dysfunctional the classroom computers were, that they should be all updated to ipads. Now looking at the buildings, the basketball field, and the playground, all memories flashed back in a couple of seconds.

I knew I would miss everything in high school. When I was in it, I wanted to get out so badly and always looked forward to graduation day, but now we are here, I started to miss it.

Damn it!

My eyes started to water when suddenly somebody called my name.

I turned my head around and saw a teenage boy wearing the same white graduation gown, but couldn’t seem to recognize his face.

“LiNa, I have a graduation gift for you.” He said.

My face must have looked a bit awkward, but it would be rude to say that I didn’t even know him, since we graduated in the same year. It was a pretty big school. He must be from a different class.

Still, at least he should look somewhat familiar, right?

I really had no memories of seeing this person before. Out of politeness, I smiled back.

He seemed to be reaching for something inside the gown and finally got it out.

“Hope you like it.”

It was a hand size gift wrapped with Pepa wrapping paper and tied with a red ribbon. My mouth corner must have gone up, and couldn’t control myself from grinning.

Hey, don’t be judgemental, who said that a high schooler couldn’t love Pepa like a four year old?

I politely took the present while trying hard not to be awkward, and looked up to say thank you and maybe even learn which class he was in.

But, there was no one there.