If Only We (23 page)

I don’t know why I was offered that second chance, and I doubt I will ever get another one. Which leads me to believe it was not just a second chance but also a way to gain new perspective for the future. It has caused me to learn how to decide my path when I reach a fork in the road. Not all of our decisions will lead to positive results. Some may end the same no matter which one we take. It’s like how people always say that you can’t control others, but you can control yourself.

That is what it boils down to: You can only control yourself.

It's not easy to face the facts but it's part of life. My mom still wishes I was a nurse, but she has learned to live with my choice. Kaitlin still wishes she hadn’t lost her best friend, but she made new friends. My dad still works a lot, but he has been making more of an effort to be part of my life. Chevy still struggles with the idea of alcoholism being a problem for him down the road, but he has a reason not to let it take over.

I didn’t have the greatest start with my career, but a lot has changed since then. I not only went back to Hidden Treasures with my headbands but also asked for a job, which Mary Ann was more than happy to give me. I may not have sold enough of my creations to make a living, but I learned a lot from the experience and gained confidence in my abilities. I'm even considering majoring in business now that I'm in college.

Not everything in life is going to be perfect. Until we can accept that, we will never truly learn how to live. We can pull through the bad times and come out renewed, ready for the next challenge. Life is what we make of it.

You just need to be there.

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Acknowledgements

First of all, a huge thank-you to every single person who believed in me and supported me through this whole thing. Thank you Mom, Dad, and Matt for always being there. I love you! Thank you Rebecca for putting up with me (time and again), cheering me on, and being a great friend. Thank you Steph for being such a super awesome since Kindergarten friend for these (more than) two decades. Thank you Marie for being such an amazing support, designing my cover, formatting, and all the advice (and laughs).

Thank you to Susan Kaye Quinn for your critique that helped immensely in focusing my first five pages to where they needed to be. A humongous thank you to my beta readers: Angie, Lan, Marie, and Molli. You guys really helped me bring out the heart of the story. Thanks so much Stephanie for editing and spreading the word. Thanks also to Cindy C. Bennett for formatting this book for print. Thank you Angie, Jenny, Lan, Marie, Molli, and Sarah for all your kind words and encouragement over the years. I always look forward to hearing from all of you! Thank you to every blogger and author that assisted in sharing the cover and hosting me on your blog and in other places. And thank you to everyone I’ve “met” online that has ever left a comment or stopped by my blog even once.

And finally…an ENORMOUS thank you to every single one of you who bought If Only We! This means YOU!

If I forgot anyone, please forgive me. You know my brain is sometimes all over the place and I didn’t mean to…and that I love you dearly!

About the Author

Jessica is the 28-year-old author of IF ONLY WE, a YA contemporary coming out in October 2013. You can often find her either reading or marathon watching TV on DVD, her favorites being Castle and Veronica Mars. She frequently mismatches her clothes and giggles uncontrollably. She knows almost every Billy Joel song by heart. She collects books and toys, and she has an intense love of cats and lemurs. Currently in the midst of her quarter-life-crisis, she is still takin’ names and getting very close to reaching an epiphany.