MacKenzie
MacKenzie had been waiting for this day her entire life. All her hard work, all the sleepless nights had come to this. Her leg bounced up and down excitedly, glancing around the audience for her mother. It had only taken eighteen years, but she was here. Every moment since the day she was born brought her to this moment.
There was the time she was three and wrote her name for the first time. She had refused to do anything until she could at least manage to scribble out something that had at least resembled her name. She and her Mother had stayed up for most of the night, just repeating the motions of the letters over and over again. The blue crayon had long since begun to stain her hands a light shade of color; piles of paper tossed away scattering the floor of the small kitchen.
It wasn’t exactly what her Mom wanted to be doing after working a twelve hour shift to pay the bills, but it made the little girl happy. Then there was the moments after her daughter had managed to write her beautiful name for the first time. MacKenzie’s eyes lit up like a Christmas Tree as she giggles with delight. Hearing that sound, that wonderful sound of her daughters laughter, made all those hours worth it. Her little girl was strong, bright, and most of all she had an innocent view of the world that was paired with sheer determination.
That determination would carry her for the rest of her life. Mackenzie never backed down from a challenge; at school or with her friends. As long as it meant pushing herself out of her comfort zone, she was willing to do it. She was determined to make her life worth something; to live in each and every moment that she ever experienced. A lesson she had learned early on from her Father was life is too short, and you have to live it.
Finally the principle speaks her name into the microphone, but no one claps, no one cheers, no one says a word. Mackenzie gets to her feet and begins to make her way up to the stage, utterly confused. Even her own mother just sat there with a sad gaze, she wouldn’t even look at her.
“May we have a moment of silence in memory of Ms. Mackenzie Moore?” She comes to a stop beside the stage, not sure how to process the words reverberating around the auditorium. Confused, she turns in the direction of her mother, her loving, supportive, diligent mother, but the women of iron is in tears.
What was happening? Why was the entire room talking like she was dead? She had gone to the beach with friends over the weekend, she had gotten ready for graduation.
“It’s time Mackenzie…” Turning on her heel, she faces her Father for the first time in twelve years. He had died in Afghanistan serving their country; something that she had always been so proud of. Glancing at her mother one last time she walks over to her childhood hero, and he embraces her one last time…