Senior year was my best year of high school, not because I was a senior, or because it was my last year, or because all of the other reasons people have for loving their senior year, but because it was the first year in high school that I didn’t have nightmares about the crash. It was also the first year I didn’t agonize over some boy. I had always had a knack for choosing guys that I could never end up with, which only added to my emotional turmoil. This year was different though, I actually had a few good friends that I felt somewhat comfortable around, but that was all changing in less than two months. When it came to college, I chose a small college in Bressonone, Italy instead of the local university in Rome like my friends. I’m not sure why, but I just wanted to get away, sometimes I wondered why, seeing as I had friends for the first time, but then I was always reminded by my mother.
“Ana! What on earth, you look like you were living in the jungle for three years without a comb!” this was my mother’s reaction to me waking up one hour before my graduation and walking downstairs for a bowl of cereal before getting ready, my mother always blew things way out of proportion.
“Mother please”
“Oh mother please what? You look like a cave man!”
“Will you just breathe Godzilla, I just woke up. I’m going to get ready after I finish eating.”
“Ana we leave in thirty minutes! You have yet to do your hair, eyebrows, and don’t even get me started about your nails! For goodness sakes, could you at least have the decency to remove that hideous black nail polish once it starts chipping? You look like a hobo!” I couldn’t help but roll my eyes at my mother when she went on about all my flaws. That’s one thing that always bothered me about my parents. They were quick to point out all my flaws, as if I myself were blind and couldn’t see them. It only made it worse, them telling me all the things that were wrong with me, I always wished my parents could have been the loving supportive type, but that couldn’t have happened even if I had a genie and a shooting star.
“Mother all I have to do is brush my hair, get dressed and grab my gown. Not everyone in this world cares about appearances as much as you do” I put my bowl in the sink and headed up stairs. It took me no more than twenty minutes to comb through my hair, put in a ponytail, comb out my bang and put on my stupid yellow dress that my mother had bought for me. My mother however, was completely disappointed with my appearance and dragged me into her bathroom and “worked her magic as quickly as she could”.
“Anabelle I don’t know why you insist on constantly wearing your hair in this unattractive ponytail! You look so much better with your hair down. I mean you were blessed with such long and beautiful black hair, you think you would do something with it, besides try to hide your face behind this ridiculous side bang. I mean really! It’s not necessary!” After eighteen years of my mother’s tangents, I learned to just keep my mouth shut and roll my eyes. The only thing that kept me sane was counting off the days until I left for college, I had seventy days left. My mother of course put us fifteen minutes behind, so my dad sped the whole way to the church. I wanted to get the whole graduation thing over with; I hated school and the activities that came along in the package. Ironically enough, I was graduating with honors, third in my class, despite my hatred of school. I guess studying was my only other option. My mother bragged to all of our neighbors about how I was graduating with honors, and even showed off my honors tassels when I received them from the school. She even held them for the entire car ride, along with my cap and gown, because apparently I would “create unnecessary wrinkles and creases”. When we pulled up to the front of the church, on time, I bolted out of the car, nearly leaving behind my cap and gown. I ran down the hall and around the corner to the room for all the graduates, but when I opened the door I realized that finding my friends in a room full of 700 people would be nearly impossible. Everyone was trying to put on caps and gowns, find their seats, talk to friends, and walk around all at the same time, in other words utter chaos.
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