Everyone knows the story of Cinderella. It’s about a young woman unknown to a world of riches, balls, and princes. Yet, somehow she is magically given a chance to have a taste of everything that was forbidden to her. However, there’s a catch. Once the clock strikes midnight, her glimpse of happiness will disappear and bring her back to reality, and Cinderella accepts that. She knew from the beginning that it couldn’t last forever. But unbeknownst to her, the prince of the kingdom fell madly in love with her, left with nothing but a shoe. And we all know what happens next. The prince finds the owner of the lost slipper. Cinderella marries the prince. She leaves her destitution. Everyone is happy, and they all live happily ever after.

As I was thinking about this past year together, I realized that in some ways, I was her. I was Cinderella.

I remember when I first became aware that you were in my class. I never had the opportunity to really talk to you before, and I wasn’t expecting anything to change. My resentment towards you and your friends still lingered in my mind, and I just wanted to survive the year without opening closed wounds. I sat in one end of the class, and you in the other. We really were from separate worlds. 

And I don’t know how it happened, but somehow, we crossed the barrier. We became friends, slowly, but we did it. My natural instinct of mistrusting strangers gradually disappeared, and I soon found myself falling hard. There were times when I questioned how I felt, if it was actually real. Was I merely bored? Was I just lonely? But it only took one look, and all my doubts washed away. Somehow, when I looked into your eyes, I knew that it wasn’t just a passing feeling.

To this day, I’m still not sure if it was love or an intense fancy, but there’s no doubt it was there. I felt in my heart. I felt it in my veins. Just the thought of you brought a smile to my face. 

But despite this, I knew that it couldn’t last. We had an expiration date: our graduation. I was always aware that the minute I walked out of high school the spell would be broken. The magic would be gone, and I would be nothing but a girl left for the cinders. 

I have held on for as long as I could, but I think our magic has reached its end. We’re slowly being pulled back into our own realities, until we finally break our bond when we step off the field. From the beginning, I knew that this day would come, and I knew that it would hurt. I just didn’t think it could be so painful.

Today, I got my first dose of what the end of graduation would feel like. I just escaped the impatient crowd waiting for their tassels, and I saw you coming near by. As usual I greeted you with a silly face and was expecting a small smile back. 

I got nothing.

You looked right through me and walked past me without any recognition. I was so taken aback that the only thing I could breathe out was a small, “Oh..” My eyes followed you up the stairs, and not once did you look back. To stop myself from showing the panic I felt, I quickly sat down and continued to sign yearbooks. I suppose I wasn’t too great hiding my feelings; one friend even asked me if anything was wrong, that I looked somber. And I really was. In that one moment, I felt my heart break, and maybe his action was unintentional, but I felt it all the same. 

It seemed to me like midnight was approaching fast.

This is where the fairy tale ends and the real world kicks in.

But I’m not going to be left with a happy ending.

Just one slipper and a memory.