Thirty four days.
The number sits in my chest like a stone, heavy and constant. Thirty four days until graduation. Thirty four days until everything changes.
I'm in the art room after school, putting the finishing touches on my last portfolio piece, a mixed media work that combines photography, painting, and collage. It's a self-portrait of sorts, though you can't really see my face. Just fragments. Pieces of who I was, who I am, who I'm becoming.
Ms. Chen stops by my table, studying the work with that critical eye that used to terrify me.
"This is your strongest piece yet," she says finally. "The vulnerability here, the way you're literally showing yourself in fragments coming together, it's powerful, Dakota."
"Thank you." I step back, looking at it with fresh eyes. She's right. It i
