Dear Norm,

Dear Norm,

I just graduated high school. I always pictured you there, sitting next to my best friend. In my mind, you would give me a thumbs up when I successfully made it up and down the steps and across the stage without tripping and in return I would cheer when your name was called and send you a huge smile when I saw you walk across that same stage, knowing how difficult school was for you. I  would watch as we threw our hats up together, and later I would find you amid the sea of green, stealing you away from your family for a few seconds. I would hug you, give the mandatory "congratulations" and we would smile for a picture and maybe we would even kiss, depending on what was going on with us. I would be so proud of you, and this would surely be my favorite memory of the two of us. Finishing high school just as we started it...together.

But you're not sandwiched between my best friend and the random boy I sit next to in Gov. Your name will never be called and I will never witness you walking across that stage in that ugly green robe, or see you move your tassel from the right to left. I will never get a picture with you.

All I am doing right now is wondering what happened to you, Norm. Why wasn't your name called? Why did you fuck up so badly that you can't even graduate high school? All I am doing is watching that fantasy over and over again in my mind, wondering what your big head would look like in that ugly green hat and if your parents are proud that their son couldn't even finish high school. They would have loved to see you graduate, Norm. You couldn't have even granted them that, could you?

The good news is that while sitting in that uncomfortable chair, watching the rest of my fellow classmates receive their diplomas, I've realized that I'm never going to see you again. I've come to terms with the fact that your more of an imaginary friend than a real person, that while our conversations are fun and witty, they are also quite meaningless.

Graduation is a new beginning. College, the military, getting a job, meeting new people. But it's the end of the road for a lot of things, too. I'd hate for it to be the end of us, but I guess that's just the way the cookie crumbles.

-B.