Gemotions

The announcement caused a sudden, sharp ache in Maria's heart. It felt like a piece of her had been torn away. The college where she’d found her voice, where she'd forged lifelong friendships, was going to cease to exist.

She walked into her living room, where she still had a stack of the college's yearbooks. She carefully selected one and sat on the couch, flipping through the pages. The pictures brought with them a flood of sensory memories: the smell of the cafeteria, the sound of the marching band, the feel of the autumn breeze on her face.

She lingered on a photo of herself at graduation, her face beaming with hope and optimism. The person in that picture felt distant, a stranger from a different lifetime. She swallowed hard, trying to reconcile the present with the past.