And Then It Rained by Megan Morrison

Author:Megan Morrison
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: education, relationships, friends, inspirational, family, memoir, teens, motivational, young adults, evolved publishing, megan morrison, and then it rained
Publisher: Evolved Publishing LLC

Chapter 25

It's hard to accept what you thought was wrong

It's hard to accept defeat

My mind stopped spinning for the five minutes necessary, and I executed my piano solo to near perfection that afternoon.

The swirl returned as soon as I got back into my car, however. Patricia had been right. The important thing wasn't what happened—what I should or shouldn't have done, or how frustrated I'd been—but what could I learn from it? What could I do with all of it now? Here it was, the biggest life decision I'd ever made—one of the biggest I'd ever make—and I had an answer: find a way to get to North Carolina.

That night, I closed my bedroom door, sat on my bed, and opened my new copy of the I Believe In You quote book to my favorites.

'Every moment you sit back and wait for something to happen is another day lost.

There are risks you cannot afford to take; there are risks you cannot afford not to.'

The puzzle pieces suddenly all fit. These passages, now engrained into my mind from the past few months, weren't just lessons to learn, they were lessons I had learned—all from my experience with Maya. I jotted them down in my notebook, and lay back to think of more examples.

By the end of the following week, my list took up two pages. The exercise then morphed into a bigger idea: verses.

I spent every free minute putting together lines of prose, constructed from quotes, books, articles, along with some original thoughts based on the past year. No source was out of bounds. I rehashed some of the more recent thought-provoking items, like my English reading. Its message easily flowed into a poem verse.

"Fear is a long, desperate journey

Sorrow is arriving at the end

Only then can you grieve for what's been lost

Only then can rebuilding begin"

That weekend, Rosie O'Donnell had a special on TV. She discussed her life and recent memoir, in which she'd included a quote: "Sometimes the person you try to save ends up saving you."

A few tears later, another verse had taken shape.

After twenty-four verses, I had my finished product. It didn't take long to determine a title. Sure, I'd learned these from Maya, but they weren't about her, or for her.

These were Lessons for Life.

***

I traveled with the concert band to Iowa the following weekend for another competition. Kacie wasn't in this band, but a number of other friends were, and so our three-hour bus ride home seemed like an easy trip. We stopped after an hour for a quick bathroom break and couple calls home, then got back on the bus.

My classmate came bounding down the aisle. "Hey, everyone, our ACT scores arrived today!"

My stomach churned. The average score of UNC-Chapel Hill's incoming class was 27 out of 36—even higher for out-of-state students. I'd scored only 26 on my most recent practice exam. The next two hours dragged on, each minute ticking off slower and slower.

When we finally arrived back at school, I sped home, parked my car in the garage, and raced to the mailbox.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.