Chapter 12
Lilla
“Today we are surrounded by family and friends who applaud you on your outstanding hard work. We’ve cheered you on from students to professionals, and today we reward that hard work and dedication with an achievement pin and the degree you have been working towards.
Today, you will cross this stage as a doctor of veterinary medicine.
You stand before your colleagues with the same goal: to provide animals with your veterinary expertise, and we know you will do just that.
I would like to take a moment to shine a light on those students who worked tirelessly to rise to the top.
Here are our three top performers, please stand when your name is called, Lilla Lane, Jenna Martin, and Jazzy Smith. ”
The three of us stand proudly, and the audience cheers, clapping for our success and dedication.
Pride courses through me; I did it. The loudest audience member is Haley.
Shouting, “Hell yeah! That’s my best friend, Go Lilla!
” I laugh at her excitement, but I feel exactly what she is feeling.
My heart explodes as I walk across this stage, where one of my favorite professors awards me with my pin and degree. I did it. I figured it out.
Who is Lilla Lane?
Mr. Jacobson calls my name, “Lilla Lane, Doctor of Veterinary Medicine.” My smile shows just how I feel, radiant.
I turn for my picture, holding my degree up, in my white vet coat, with the world's biggest grin, and tears in my eyes, because I fucking made it. I figured it out, on my own, just as I always have, because I am Lilla Lane, and that’s what I do.
The celebration afterward is full of happiness and jokes about studying relentlessly until we were zombies.
Haley went into nursing school, making it possible for us to attend the same college.
We ended up staying in our hometown, rooming together, both studying our asses off, while having some fun in between.
I got a job at the library, where I got to study and read.
I found myself immersed in books that taught me something, each offering new knowledge and power.
After exams, Haley and I would have parties, with the best movies, popcorn, and Root Beer floats.
We would have more fun staying in, learning moves from Coyote Ugly, choking on popcorn, and getting brain freezes.
For an all-A report, each semester, we treated ourselves to shopping adventures, buying the latest fashion trends, with our own money.
We were growing together, learning, living, and loving the life I never thought I could.
Haley’s family sits around the large circular table, laughing at our stories, and I sit around this table, loving the sound.
Their laughter was full of so much love and grace.
Even when our stories got crazy, and borderline somewhere around ‘shouldn't tell my parents this,’ they laughed, cheering us on, and all of our crazy adventures. Drifting in parking lots full of snow and ice, praying like hell we didn’t crash.
Streaking down the campus sidewalk because of a game of truth or dare got a little too daring.
With each story, the memory came to life, and we relived it, and for the first time in my life, I wanted to.
I wanted to look back on this season of my life and walk through it again.
Even though it was hard and we struggled, it made it worth it.
Life is worth the trials and errors; it’s worth the heartbreaks along the way.
Sitting around this table, with my family, I’m so fucking happy I didn’t jump.
Looking back, I could see that I was running from everything, trying to free myself from the shackles I was bound in.
Only, I was running in the wrong direction.
I was face down, burrowing myself deeper.
I was looking at the water floating effortlessly under that bridge, at freedom, as if it were costing me something, when, really, it was beneficial; I just had to look up.
“We are so proud of you, young ladies. You have come so far, and you both should be so incredibly proud.”
We are.