Jordan's Diary

If you had told me a year ago that I'd be sittin' here, writin' this last page in my dorm at Cambridge, I woulda told you to shut the hell up. Me? A whole-ass college student? A whole-ass future? Nah. That wasn't in the cards for me.

But life got a funny way of provin' you wrong.

A year ago, I was just that angry-ass girl fresh outta juvie, tryna keep my head down in a school full of fake smiles and bullshit. I ain't give a damn about nothin' or nobody. And now? Now, I got people who love me. People who ain't run when I pushed 'em away.

Josie's still here. Matthew too. We all made it. We all got into Cambridge. Yeah, Cambridge—some shit I never thought I'd say. But here we are, the three of us, still ridin' together.

Ain't gonna lie, the past year wasn't easy. There were fights. Tears. Nights I ain't think I was gonna make it. But somehow, I did. Somehow, we did.

My mom? She still a work in progress. We still ain't got that perfect, lovey-dovey, mother-daughter shit goin' on, but she tryin'. She listenin' now. She finally believed me about Uncle Oscar. She finally stopped runnin' from the truth, from me, from all the shit she ain't wanna face. That alone? That mean somethin'.

And me? I'm still learnin'.

I still get mad. Still feel like breakin' shit when life don't make sense. Still got days where the past creep up on me and make me feel like that same scared little girl from back then. But I'm learnin' that I ain't gotta let it control me. That maybe, just maybe, I deserve good things too.

Josie helped me see that. She been by my side through all my bullshit, through all the times I pushed her away. She ain't let me run no more. She made me face myself, made me see what's been in front of me this whole time. And now? She's mine. I finally let myself have somethin' real.

Matthew? That's my brother for life. He always saw me when I ain't even see myself. Always reminded me that family ain't just about blood—it's about who stay. And he stayed.

And then there's music.

That thing I buried deep down, thinkin' it ain't matter no more. But Josie saw me. She saw me play, saw me lose myself in it. And for the first time in years, I ain't feel ashamed of it. I let myself have it again. I started playin' more, even sang a little. Hell, I might even do somethin' with it one day. Who knows?

A year ago, I ain't believe in happy endings. I thought they was some made-up fairytale bullshit for people who ain't know how cruel life really was. But maybe I was wrong.

Maybe I get to have one too.

Maybe this ain't the end.

Maybe this is just the beginnin'.

— Jordan