Prologue

September 26, 2022

Nineteen years old.

A first-year B.Sc. Nursing student.

Still single.

It's funny how three simple facts can make you question your entire life.

Sometimes, I sit alone and wonder if there's something wrong with me. Not physically, not mentally—just... emotionally. Maybe I was born with a heart that doesn't know how to fall in love. Maybe everyone received a manual on love except me.

I know that sounds dramatic.

But when you're nineteen and every other conversation around you somehow turns into stories about crushes, relationships, heartbreaks, or "the one that got away," you can't help but wonder why you've never had a story of your Own.

Or maybe...

I did.

I just never realized it.

Growing up, I watched my friends blush whenever someone mentioned a boy's name. Some secretly wrote names in the corners of their notebooks. Others spent hours talking on the phone, smiling at messages that I could never understand. There were girls who cried over breakups, girls who celebrated anniversaries, and girls who confidently declared that they had already found the love of their lives.

And then there was me.

The girl who always smiled and listened.

The girl who teased her friends about their crushes.

The girl who was always asked, "Don't you like anyone?"

I would laugh and shake my head.

Sometimes because it was true.

Sometimes because I didn't know how to explain what I was feeling.

Was it possible to like someone without calling it love?

Was it possible to carry memories of people long after they had left your life?

If it wasn't love...

Then what was it?

Maybe my story was never about finding love quickly.

Maybe it was about understanding what love truly means.

I don't know.

Even today, I don't have an answer.

As I write this, it's September 26, 2022.

My first year of B.Sc. Nursing has just begun. Life is moving faster than I ever imagined. New classes, new people, new responsibilities, and dreams that seem both exciting and terrifying at the same time.

Everyone keeps telling me that college is where love begins.

Maybe they're right.

Maybe they're wrong.

Only time knows.

But before life decides to write my future, I want to preserve my past.

Because memories have a strange way of fading.

Faces become blurry.

Voices become quieter.

Conversations disappear.

But feelings...

Somehow, they stay.

There are people I haven't seen in years, yet I still remember the way they smiled.

There are moments so ordinary that no one else would remember them, but for some reason, they continue to live in my heart.

A flower.

A goodbye.

A laugh shared on a summer afternoon.

A misunderstanding that seemed like the end of the world.

At the time, they felt insignificant.

Now, they feel like pieces of a puzzle I haven't finished solving.

Maybe that's why I'm writing this.

Not because I have an extraordinary love story.

In fact, I don't think I have one at all.

At least, not yet.

I'm writing because every person I met changed me in some way.

Some stayed only for a season.

Some disappeared without saying goodbye.

Some taught me kindness.

Some taught me disappointment.

Some reminded me that even the shortest encounters can leave the deepest memories.

If my life were a book, each of them would be another page.

Some pages are filled with laughter.

Some are stained with tears.

Some make me smile whenever I revisit them.

Others still leave me wondering what could have been.

Maybe none of them were meant to be the final chapter.

Maybe they were simply preparing me for the chapter that hasn't been written yet.

The chapter where I finally meet...

you.

I don't know who you are.

I don't know where you are.

Maybe we've already crossed paths without knowing.

Maybe we're complete strangers.

Or maybe you're reading these words years from now, smiling because you already know how this story ends.

If that's true...

I hope you'll understand something.

Before our story ever began, there were countless others.

Not love stories.

Life stories.

Stories of a little girl who believed in destiny.

Stories of friendships that felt unbreakable.

Stories of innocent crushes, painful goodbyes, unexpected lessons, and quiet hopes that never disappeared.

Every one of those moments shaped me into the person I became.

Every one of those people unknowingly wrote a page in my heart.

And this book is about those pages.

The pages that came before you.

So, before life turns another page...

Let me take you back to where it all began.

To a little girl who believed that destiny could be found in a classroom.

And to a boy...

...who once handed her a flower.

Until then... these are the Pages Before You.

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