• As I opened the curtains that covered my bedroom window, I realized that I had never seen a sunrise so stunning. The sky was a vibrant crimson, flaming orange tinging the edges of the horizon. The clouds shone gold, and the sun had yet to peak over the purple shadowed mountains. The first thought that struck me was that we would have rain by noon.

    Reluctantly facing away from the magnificent sight directly outside, I glanced at my closet. It was time to decide what to wear. After all, today was an incredibly important day. I had been both dreading and looking forward to this day for the entire year. Today was the day I received that all important piece of paper and graduated from high school, never to return.

    Admittedly, that last overdramatic statement was slightly exaggerated. For one, I didn’t actually need a cheesy certificate to graduate. Secondly, I still had classes for the next two weeks. But the purpose of the graduation ceremony wasn’t to cast me out into the real world, was it? No, the reasoning behind the odd hats and brightly colored party supplies was about celebrating everything that I had accomplished in my four years of high school. Alas, that led into my final, ever present question.

    What had I accomplished?

    To all my teachers, I was Victoria Lark, an honor student with a 4.0 average who was sure to go places in life. To my classmates, I was Victoria, quiet, anti-social, and a typically stuck-up teacher’s pet. To my friends, of which I had almost none, I was “Vicky”, a shy but pleasant girl who always helped them with their homework and kept up with their intellectual conversations. The problem was, “Vicky” wasn’t anyone special, not really. “Vicky” may have been valedictorian of her small high school, and “Vicky” may have been accepted into Harvard, MIT and CalTech; but “Vicky” was just on paper. My life was uneventful, my time was spent studying, and even I wouldn’t have wanted to hang out with myself after school. Unless my grades needed improving, of course.

    So, besides school, what had been the point? I hadn’t joined any clubs -- not even math team! My parents were never short on money, so the only work I did was to fill in my required volunteer hours. I didn’t have any favorite television shows or movies, my music was limited to one mediocre playlist on my laptop that was filled with old assignments, and my books were almost all non-fiction. Besides “Intro to Quantum Physics” and “The Fellowship of the Ring”, what was interesting about me? I’ll tell you; nothing. Victoria Rose Lark was the single most uninteresting, dull, lifeless person on the planet. Graduation couldn’t and wouldn’t change any of that.