Narrative Essay: "Freedom and a Yellow Slip of Paper"

“Freedom and a Yellow Slip of Paper”
As the teacher lectured, I stared out the window. I had better things to think about than a high school Advanced Placement Psychology course. How about the thought of meeting my biological parents for the first time in my seventeen years of life? I received one half page slip of yellow paper yesterday with a telephone number, address, and names of my parents. The two people in the world that I had been waiting to meet since the day they left me on Grandell Orphanage’s doorstep. My name is Chloe Belle and I am scared to know the truth about my real parents.
Todd and Julia Belle took me in when I was no more than a week old. I was never given a name by my biological parents. Marianne, a woman at the orphanage named me. I had no idea about that until yesterday either. There were so many things I was unaware of about my past: my childhood, my real parents, my identity. The latter was something I was almost positive was the only real link to my parents. Paul Grandell informed me yesterday of everything I never would have known had I not spoken up. I was tired of asking questions, sick of feeling lost, worried of being alone, and unable to fill a hole in my empty heart. No matter how fed up I am with my past, I have this yellow slip of paper in my backpack that will set me free. The freedom I know it will give me somehow manages to scare me.
Will I be able to confront my parents and ask them the questions I have wanted answered? Will I be courageous enough to even speak to them? How am I going to get there? Should I tell Todd and Julia I am going to meet them? This is typical me. I worry about everyone else but myself. This time I need to be selfish. I need to make everyone in my life, or not in my life, realize that I am self conscious, alone and most importantly afraid.
I sat in my seat, eyes staring intently out the window of the classroom. I was not looking at anyone outside, anything in the sky, nothing. I was just staring and attempting to answer the millions of thoughts in my head. I figured I should start by answering the question of how I was going to get myself to the other side of town. Todd and Julia would never let me go, so that answers the thought of telling them about this. I need to have some sort of reasonable alibi to be out late on a school night. What is one place that is safe, innocent and a sanctuary for a student? The Library. That’s it, I will tell them I am studying with Kylie at the library for Spanish. That was justifiable, I mean I do not exactly enjoy the Spanish language and my best friend Kylie is the Spanish know-it-all. Well that solved it, now hopefully my 1993 Honda Civic started in order to actually “get me there.”
“Chloe,” I hear from behind me, with an accompanying tap on the shoulder. Crap how long was I staring out the window? I did not realize that class was over and I was the only one left in the room.
“Are you okay,” Mrs. McHendry questioned as she knelt down by my desk.
“Um….yeah I think so.”
“You missed the entire lecture about parenting styles and the effect they have on young children. Talk to Kylie I am sure she can give you the notes you missed,” she reassured me. The topic of discussion was quite ironic. What about a lack of parenting and how it has affected my life? I would soon find out as I grabbed my car keys and yellow paper of freedom and headed towards the parking lot.