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Back The Best Laid Plans Save as PDF
Chapters (39)
  1. Cover
  2. Dedication
  3. ONE
  4. TWO
  5. THREE
  6. FOUR
  7. FIVE
  8. SIX
  9. SEVEN
  10. EIGHT
  11. NINE
  12. TEN
  13. ELEVEN
  14. TWELVE
  15. THIRTEEN
  16. FOURTEEN
  17. FIFTEEN
  18. SIXTEEN
  19. SEVENTEEN
  20. EIGHTEEN
  21. NINETEEN
  22. TWENTY
  23. TWENTY-ONE
  24. TWENTY-TWO
  25. TWENTY-THREE
  26. TWENTY-FOUR
  27. TWENTY-FIVE
  28. TWENTY-SIX
  29. TWENTY-SEVEN
  30. TWENTY-EIGHT
  31. TWENTY-NINE
  32. THIRTY
  33. THIRTY-ONE
  34. THIRTY-TWO
  35. THIRTY-THREE
  36. THIRTY-FOUR
  37. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  38. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
  39. What’s next onyour reading list?

I know it’s not the end, not just yet. We still have all summer before we’re pulled in different directions. Andrew and I have two months before we have to go long-distance. But we’ll never be the exact same as we are right now. We’ll never have eighteen-years-old, summer-before-college ever again, when we’re free and optimistic, when we’re all in love for the first time and the world is spread out before us, untouched and shimmering.

I don’t know what the future holds. I don’t know if Andrew and I will stay together forever, if he’ll always be my best friend, my favorite person, my most important somebody. I hope so. I hope I’ll be eating pizza with him until we’re too old to chew. But I know I can’t plan it all out right now. I can’t look for answers in a book, can’t map everything out before it happens.

Sometimes life isn’t perfect. It isn’t a movie. I can’t direct it, can’t edit out the scenes that I don’t like. Life is messy and complicated and full of misunderstandings. And that’s okay. Whatever happens, I can’t wait.

I’m so ready.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

As a kid, when I imagined the ideal writer version of myself, it looked like this: me, alone in a cabin somewhere, on an island, or a beach, or on top of a mountain surrounded by trees. And while part of that has come true (I have written on several different islands), the truth is that writing is not something you do alone; there are so many people who have helped and cheered me along every step of the way.

First, I must thank my parents, who have always been supportive of my love of the arts (whether that meant driving me to rehearsals, plying me with piles of books each Christmas, or encouraging me to write on weekend mornings instead of watching cartoons). I’m thankful that the words “I’m bored” were always met with suggestions of how to fill my time with art and music. Thank you for understanding that I was never going to take a typical path and for cultivating my creativity. To my dad for inspiring in me a love of stories by reading to me each night before bed. To my mom, who, when I was feeling down about my music, said “I think you should be a writer” and changed the course of my life.

A huge thank-you to Shirin Yim Bridges. I started your class with an idea for a story, and now I get to share it with the world.