Picking the Wallflower

Eleven years have passed since I left that school. In the interim, I’ve qualified as a Doctor of Criminology, and with a Masters in Law. I’ve become the lead lawyer in a company I started from scratch, and I’ve actively sought to change certain laws. Those laws deal with harassment, bullying, and assault.

I put down my pen, taking a break from writing my story. Some magazine asking for a story about where I came from to get to where I am today. Why? I don’t know. But I like the idea, so I have decided to tell my story. I pick up a letter from my desk. It’s an invitation, one to my ten year school reunion. Well, ten years for them.

I know I’m going to reject the invitation; work is too busy to attend the function. The traffic passes far below my office window, and I pause to watch them. So many lives, so many threads connecting them all. If I could make a difference to just one, that would be enough for me. At least, that’s what I tell my good friend, MJ.

All these years later, and the football player turned advocate has remained a good friend. Never a lover, but always a friend. His wife would object if he did become my lover. That point aside, MJ understands my need to make a difference.

So does Miss Melissa Partridge. She and I connected, and she has been a wonderful friend ever since. While I keep contact with my parents, my mother never forgave me for not marrying that ’nice Michael friend of yours’. She has never understood. Neither has my father. But both of them have respected who I have become, and in the end, that is what matters to me.

I only need to make a difference in one life. If I have that, it’s all been worth it.