D.C., Baltimore, Philadelphia, Austin... and you. I'll be there soon.

All of my stories, they don't come from my high school experience, but they're definitely based on things that happened to me in high school, or things that happened to friends of mine, or things that I wish had happened to me.

He wasn't what I'd thought he was; maybe he never had been. I wasn't what I'd thought I was, either.

The point,' Ms. Conyers continued, "is that no word had one specific definition. Maybe in the dictionary, but not in real life.

And like my dad always said, the first step is always the hardest.

It was like reaching for someone's hand, then missing their fingers, or even their arm, and hitting their shoulder instead. But no matter. You hang on tight anyway.

If you didn't love him, this never would have happened. But you did. And accepting that love and everything that followed it is part of letting it go.