"I’m not wanting to say when this growing-up event occurred, or even to give my real name. I wrote the story you are about to read for my college creative writing class. The assignment: 1) tell about a significant maturing event; 2) in present tense; 3) as though from a diary.
Since I keep a diary, even if I didn't need it to recall meeting that tennis player, I got it out. I paged to January. Oh yes, there's the train ticket, a drink coaster I took from the lounge car, a photo of dad, and – standing at the bus – another picture: it's him. My nose recalls the scent that night – Irish mint.
My last year of high school ahead, I was seventeen."