Epilogue
EPILOGUE
Four years later…
“ L ana Alvarez, magna cum laude .”
Wild cheers and applause break out as I walk across the stage to accept my diploma and shake hands with the Dean of the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law. I turn to face my fan club and hold the diploma aloft, a grin filling my face.
Mateo is clapping most exuberantly of all, his tender eyes full of tears. My dad is next to him with Mom by his side, cheering through her own tears, looking about as proud as I’ve ever seen her.
I know I should exit the stage in a timely manner, but I can’t help but take in all the faces— my faces—in the crowd. Of course, my siblings are there too, along with Mateo’s parents, Miguel, and Isabel with her husband. Amaya is whistling, and Teegan jumps up and down next to her fiancé. Samira and Zahra stand between my mom and Elena, beaming up at me. Several friends we’ve made over the past few years here in D.C. round out the group, all cheering me on.
I still shake my head sometimes at teenage Lana and her certainty over her future. She held that perfect plan in a toddler-hiding-candy death grip. Bless her heart. I’m still grateful for her determination, even if learning to let go a little is what got me here on this stage, in this specific community.
The D.C. area has become a third home to Mateo and me. He killed it that first summer playing for the League Two team and was enthusiastically welcomed by Coach Anderson to Lincoln United. We got married in Brooklyn that October, the stunning colors of my favorite season providing the perfect wedding backdrop at the prairie reserve. I’m not sure who cried more—Mateo, my mom, or Luis. They were all fiercely vying for a first-place finish.
We found the perfect spot to live just north of the D.C. metro, halfway between Mateo’s soccer complex and the University of Maryland in Baltimore. After a year working with Elena on Capitol Hill and volunteering with the Chacón Center, I was accepted to the law program for the immigration clinic. Despite years of being a dedicated student, it was the hardest I ever had to work. I never would have made it through without Mateo encouraging me every time I had a bad day.
For my part, I was loudly cheering as frequently as I could as Mateo played as a substitute for Lincoln United. I think the referees came to recognize (and dread) the sound of my voice. Mateo also reached out to the director of the soccer program that Andrès was involved with in Miami, leaning on his expertise to start a similar nonprofit soccer club for disadvantaged youth in D.C. Mateo really liked playing soccer, but he loved interacting with those kids and watching them heal, grow, and just have fun being kids. I jumped in to help with skills training for the girls’ teams any time I had the chance.
After suffering a torn Achilles tendon in his third season with Lincoln, Mateo decided to retire from professional soccer rather than work his way back to playing condition. He swore he was totally content to focus on finishing his master’s degree and running the nonprofit instead of continuing to play (aside from the co-ed rec team we joined together) .
Between the soccer club and the community we’ve built here, I have a hard time picturing us moving away from D.C. anytime soon. Then again, I’ve learned my lesson about holding on too tightly to my plans for the future. What I do know is that Mateo is my forever, regardless of where we wind up geographically.
And that’s the perfect forever for me.