Teenage Feelings

As she lay back on the rooftop, something unexpected happened. A rush of old memories came flooding in, hitting her like a tidal wave. Not the painful ones, but the absurd, funny, and bittersweet ones.

She remembered the time in middle school when she had tripped on her own shoelaces during a school presentation and taken down the entire whiteboard with her. The class had erupted in laughter, and even the teacher had struggled to keep a straight face. That moment had been pure embarrassment, but looking back, it was hilarious.

Then there was the day she and Ayera had tried to bake cookies for a school fundraiser. They had misread the recipe, adding salt instead of sugar, and ended up selling the world's worst cookies to unsuspecting classmates. The memory made her laugh out loud.

But mixed with the laughter were the heavier memories—the time she had studied all night only to blank out during an exam, the moment she overheard her parents discussing how she "wasn't like other kids" because she never seemed truly happy. The nights she had stared at the ceiling, wondering if she would ever be enough.

Tears welled up in her eyes, but this time, they weren't from sadness. They were from relief. Relief that she had lived through it all. That she was still here. That she could look back and smile.

Anim wiped her tears, grinning to herself. Maybe life wasn't about being perfect. Maybe it was about collecting these ridiculous, messy, beautiful memories.

And as she drifted off to sleep under the night sky, she made a promise to herself: to create more memories, to laugh more, to live without fear. Because at the end of the day, that was what truly mattered.