WHEN I WAS 7 YEARS OLD, I CRIED AND SAID I WAS GOING TO MARRY MY NEIGHBOR. I WENT TO A JOB INTERVIEW 15 YEARS LATER — THE GENERAL MANAGER LOOKED AT ME AND SMILED: ‘THE GENERAL MANAGER… DID YOU APPLY TO BE HIS WIFE?

My Neighbor

Connor was someone everyone in the neighborhood loved and respected, because he was tall, intelligent, polite, and always willing to help others without expecting anything in return.

He had lost his parents at a very young age and lived with his grandmother in the house right next to ours, which made the adults in the neighborhood care about him even more.

When I was only in the first grade of elementary school, he was already a university student who spent most of his time studying and working hard for his future.

Every evening, he would sit quietly on the apartment stairs with a book in his hands while watching me play in the courtyard, and somehow that simple presence always made me feel safe.

Whenever I fell off my bicycle and scraped my knees, he would patiently clean my wounds and tell me that I needed to be more careful next time.

Whenever my grades were bad, he would sit down with me and make sure I understood my lessons properly, even if it meant repeating the same explanation many times.

Whenever I cried because a friend upset me or treated me unfairly, he would take me to buy ice cream and listen to my complaints as if they were the most important things in the world.

In my small and simple world, Connor was like a superhero who could fix everything and make me feel better no matter what happened.

When I turned twelve years old, everything suddenly changed in a way that I did not expect at all.

There was no goodbye and no explanation, because one morning I woke up and noticed that the house next door was completely closed and silent.

I later learned that his grandmother had passed away, and shortly after that, he had moved away from the neighborhood without telling anyone in advance.

I stood in front of their door with my school backpack on my shoulders, crying as if I had lost a very important part of my childhood that I could never get back.

After that day, I never saw Connor again, and his absence left a quiet but painful space in my heart that I did not know how to fill.

15 Years Later

I eventually grew up and became someone completely different from the little girl who once cried in the courtyard while making bold promises about the future.

I worked extremely hard in school and managed to get into a prestigious university in New York, where I studied law and graduated with honors.

Everyone around me kept saying that I had a bright future ahead of me, and they believed I would achieve great success if I continued working with the same determination.

However, there was still a small corner in my heart that belonged to Connor, even though I had no idea where he was or what kind of life he was living.

I did not know whether he still remembered me, or if I had simply become a forgotten memory from his past.

But whenever I felt tired or overwhelmed, I would remember his words telling me to study hard, and that memory always gave me the strength to keep going.

The day I walked into the headquarters of Suncrest Holdings, one of the largest corporations in the country, I held my documents tightly and reminded myself to stay focused.

I told myself quietly that I only needed to get the job and that I should not expect anything more than that.