Opal is Graduating

They grow up so fast!  Well, they don't all grow up, but Opal has grown up and it is time for her to graduate from High School.

It seems like just yesterday that she entered high school.

She gained quite a bit of weight during her Freshman and Sophomore years.

She worked hard to take off the pounds, and by her Senior year a great womanly figure emerged.

She has changed a lot on the inside also over the years.  In her early years in High School, she hung out mostly with the same group of girls (Raven, Nakia, and Brandy).  She was perceived as being somewhat of a snob, but she was mostly just shy.

 She eventually gained confidence and found her voice, and learned that she could communicate and relate to just about anyone.  She had a natural way of getting people to feel comfortable enough to open up to her. She knew early on what she wanted to do in her career, and she felt that working at the radio station was a step in the right direction.  She was hired as an office assistant and worked after school.  One of the DJ's allowed her to go on the air one day, taking a few calls from kids and offering advice.  That's when things really took off.  The local kids began to call in asking for Opal, and she was given her own 1 hour segment which aired after school during the week.  One of the producers had some connections, and before long Opal had her own local talk show on cable access television.  She even had a celebrity on her show.  She is the youngest person in Roxville's history to have her own talk show.

Opal got accepted to all 3 colleges that she applied to, and she selected a nearby university with a great journalism program.  Her goal is to have her own nationally syndicated talk show.  Going to college nearby will allow her to keep her local talk show, but she still feels like college will be a world away from her friends and from her boyfriend.

She has been dating Tre for a year, and now their relationship is at a crossroads.  Opal is going away to college in the fall, and Tre will still be in high school.  Sometimes she wishes that she had not fallen in love with a younger guy, but she is happy to have had Tre in her life.  No matter what happens, he will always be her first love.

She is wondering what she should do now.  She loves him, and she does not want to let him go.  At the same time, she is anxious to move on in her life, and she wants to open herself up to new experiences.  And they say that long-distance relationships don't work.  Could she and Tre really make it work?  Or will he go back to his old girlfriend Kiyoni Brown as soon as she's out of town?  If they are going to break up, should they do it now, or spend one last summer together?  There are so many conflicting thoughts, feelings, and emotions swirling around all at once.  Opal feels joyful to move on in her life, but devastated to leave the ones that she loves behind.