Graduation.

We sat at the back of the hall at old wooden tables pre-chosen for us, a buzz of excitement (or was it mitigation?)gently hovering above seated lines of the "future minds of tomorrow", or whatever they were about to tell us.
We were smiling, we were remarking over each other's dresses, we were posing for photos, and it was all so promising. Our destiny's awaited, but besides that, we were completely naiive.

This was 2 years ago. Yes, two years have passed. And I think of this day because tonight I'll be there again, but it won't be me sitting at the desk in the room behind the hall this time.
No, I'll be a spectator, and my sister will be the spectacle. I wish I knew how to tell her that everything she knows is about to change. I wish I could say that things will be ok, and everything that she's hoped will come true.

But I can't. No one experiences the same, do they? So while, in these two years, my world has been turned upside down and back again ten-fold, I can't know for sure that the same will happen for her. Maybe it will really go the way she's always wanted, and the path will always be clear and straight. Though personally, I wouldn't change any of the experiences in my time since for the world.

I felt so numb that day. Yes, I was smiling and sharing in the celebration, but underneath it all meant nothing. "This Year" by The Mountain Goats played as everyone skipped out of the echoing hall, marking the end of an era and the start of a new life. Why didn't I feel anything? Why was it only in the time after that I've mourned my old, familiar world, wished I could drift out of my responsibilities back to a time when feeling content was effortless.

I do miss those young smiling faces. Some have moved away, some have drifted away, some were never really there, some revealed their true selves. It doesn't change the time we had when we were together though. Sometimes I dream that we could all be again, but then I remember that it only fit momentarily; we were never meant to be anything substantial.

Time flies; people change. You grow, you emote, you de-sensitise, you wake.

Tonight I'll sit there, watching while they step up to the stage to receive they're navy sashes, patient and proud. I know what their poised on, but I won't share that knowledge. It's for you to learn, for you to experience; no one but fate knows your path.
So all I'll say is - welcome to the world.