Chapter five:What We Choose
1167 Words
A year later, everything had changed.
University was nothing like secondary school.
There were new people, new responsibilities and much more work than I had expected.
I was studying architecture in another city.
Daniel was studying engineering.
We didn’t see each other every day anymore.
At first, I hated it.
I missed our conversations.
I missed seeing him after class.
I missed the stupid jokes he made whenever I was stressed.
But we learned to deal with the distance.
We called when we could.
Sometimes we’d talk for hours.
Other times, one of us would be too tired to do more than say goodnight.
There were days when we barely spoke.
There were misunderstandings too.
Once, Daniel didn’t reply to my messages for almost an entire day because he was working on a project.
I was upset.
When he finally called, we argued.
“You could have told me you were busy,” I said.
“I know.”
“I was worried.”
“I know.”
“You always say that.”
He sighed.
“I didn’t mean to make you worry.”
We were quiet.
Then he said, “I’m still learning how to balance everything.”
I softened.
“So am I.”
That was one of the things I liked most about us.
We weren’t perfect.
We didn’t always know what to do.
We made mistakes.
But we talked about them.
We didn’t pretend everything was fine when it wasn’t.
One Saturday afternoon, Daniel came to visit me.
I hadn’t seen him in almost two months.
I was waiting outside my campus when I saw him walking toward me.
“You’re late,” I said.
He smiled.
“Some things never change.”
I laughed.
“You still haven’t learned.”
“Apparently not.”
We spent the afternoon walking around campus.
I showed him the architecture studio.
He complained that the models looked impossible to build.
I laughed at him.
Then he showed me some of his engineering work.
I didn’t understand half of it.
“You’re supposed to explain this to me.”
“I did.”
“No, you used words I don’t understand.”
He laughed.
“That’s because you’re an architect.”
“And you’re an engineer.”
“Exactly.”
We eventually sat beneath a large tree near the edge of campus.
Daniel looked at me.
“Do you remember the first day we met?”
I laughed.
“You were late.”
“I was nervous.”
“You didn’t look nervous.”
“I was.”
“Why?”
“I didn’t know anyone.”
I smiled.
“And then you sat beside me.”
“Best decision I ever made.”
I shook my head.
“You’re dramatic.”
“Maybe.”
We sat quietly for a while.
Then Daniel asked, “Do you ever regret it?”
“Regret what?”
“Liking me.”
I looked at him.
“No.”
“Not even once?”
I thought about it.
“There were difficult moments.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
I smiled.
“No. I don’t regret it.”
He nodded.
“I don’t either.”
I looked at him.
“You know what I realized?”
“What?”
“You were never really the boy I wasn’t supposed to love.”
He laughed.
“Then what was I?”
“The boy everyone told me not to get involved with.”
“And what happened?”
“I got involved anyway.”
He smiled.
“Sounds like a terrible decision.”
“It probably was.”
He laughed.
I opened my bag.
“Actually, I have something for you.”
“What?”
I handed him a small notebook.
He looked at the cover.
“You bought me a notebook?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because you keep forgetting things.”
He laughed.
“I don’t.”
“You do.”
He opened it.
The first page had a sentence written across it.
For all the things you’re going to build.
He looked at me.
“You remembered.”
“Of course.”
He smiled.
“Thank you.”
I smiled back.
“Future engineer.”
“Future architect.”
We laughed.
The sun was beginning to set.
I looked around the campus and thought about the girl I had been when Daniel first walked into my classroom.
She had been afraid.
Afraid of distractions.
Afraid of disappointment.
Afraid of getting attached to someone who might leave.
She thought that if she stayed away from love, she could protect herself.
But she had learned that life didn’t work that way.
You couldn’t control every feeling.
You couldn’t predict every ending.
And you couldn’t build your entire life around avoiding pain.
Sometimes people came into your life unexpectedly.
Sometimes they stayed.
Sometimes they left.
And sometimes, if you were lucky, you met someone who encouraged you to become more yourself instead of asking you to become less.
Daniel had never asked me to give up my dreams.
He never told me that I had to choose between him and my future.
Instead, he asked about my designs.
He encouraged me when my assignments went badly.
He celebrated when I did well.
And I tried to do the same for him.
Our relationship wasn’t perfect.
There were still things we didn’t know.
We didn’t know where we’d live after university.
We didn’t know what jobs we’d get.
We didn’t know what the next five years would look like.
We were still figuring things out.
But maybe that was okay.
Love didn’t have to come with every answer.
Sometimes it was simply about two people choosing to be honest with each other.
Choosing to communicate.
Choosing to respect each other’s dreams.
Choosing to grow without leaving the other person behind.
Daniel stood up.
“Ready?”
I packed my things.
“Ready.”
We walked toward the campus gate together.
I looked at him and smiled.
He smiled back.
I thought about the title I would have given our story back then.
The boy I wasn’t supposed to love.
But now I knew better.
He wasn’t the boy I wasn’t supposed to love.
He was simply a person I had to get to know for myself.
And maybe that was the real lesson.
People will always have opinions about who you should trust, who you should avoid and who you should love.
Sometimes they’re right.
Sometimes they’re wrong.
But at the end of the day, you have to live with your own choices.
Daniel wasn’t perfect.
Neither was I.
We were two young people with dreams, fears, mistakes and a lot left to learn.
But we had chosen to grow.
Together.
And for now, that was enough.
We walked through the gates as the sky slowly turned orange.
Neither of us knew exactly what the future held.
But neither of us was afraid of it anymore.
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