We all enter life in medias res - in the middle of the story.
Many books start in the middle of the action to draw in the reader, to keep them hooked. The past is then filled in later, either through flashbacks, discussions, or simply rewinding time and starting over from the beginning. It's quite a popular technique, and I have to wonder if part of the reason why is because this is how we all experience life.
When we're born, the world has already been going on for longer than we've been alive. Our personal story starts then, but there are so many other pieces we need to fill in to get the complete backstory. For me, you could start telling my story with the death of my mother, when I was six years old, during a burglary by the Agni Kai Triad. But then you'd be leaving out the history of Republic City that led to the rise of gangs such as them, the particulars of this gang, and why they chose to target my parents' home in particular. To be honest, I still don't fully know the answer to that last part, so any story I tell about myself is by necessity going to be incomplete.
Nevertheless, that was the point where I always considered my own story to start. That incident spurred my father to hire the best self-defense instructors in Republic City to train me. He raised me to be confident, self-assured, skilled, and smart, so that what happened to my mother would never happen to me. I truly love him for that, even if he did end up going too far in retaliation against Benders. Despite his own mistakes, it's due to the way he raised me that I was able to stand up to him and take him down.
But while my story has always firmly been my own, it's also always been painfully obvious to me that the rest of the world is filled with people in the middle of their own stories. I had to catch up on so much of it all in my youth, and again with every new person I met. Perhaps most significant of all was when it came to the stories of Avatar Korra and the brothers Mako and Bolin.
Of the three, I met Mako first. As I saw the story, he came out of nowhere, and I was barely able to avoid running him over with my Satomobile. He was a handsome boy of my own age, a player of my favorite sport who needed a sponsor to continue to play it, and the chemistry between us was instantaneous. It was as if I'd won a cosmic lottery and the spirits had given me just what I wanted. Until I learned the rest of the story.
For Mako, the story was about the sudden appearance of two women in his life vying for his attentions - myself and Korra - and the slow realization that while he had feelings for both of us, he prefered Korra, but he'd gotten into a relationship with me first. For Korra, it was about her feelings for Mako, with me as the sudden complication, the obstacle. And for Bolin, it was about his unrequited feelings for Korra, and the slowly-dawning realization that she preferred Mako to him.
There have been many times in my life when I knew it was best to take control, to make the story my own. This was not one of those times. Mako and Korra were at the center of this story, and they had to be the ones to take control, for better or worse. I can't say I was exactly happy with how they ended up resolving things, but… I couldn't find it in myself to remain angry with either of them.
As frustrated as I was with Mako, I still cared for him. And it wasn't as if I could blame Korra for being attracted to Mako. Besides, I quite liked her company. And so I remained friends with them. And when Mako and Korra eventually decided they didn't work as a couple, it gave Korra and myself one more thing to bond over.
And so I slowly began to realize what my story was truly about. Throughout it all, there was only one person I found myself truly comfortable with. I trusted Mako and Bolin, certainly, but things were always different between myself and Korra. Our relationship developed so gradually that I don't know if I could describe it properly if I tried.
I guess the best way to put it is this: As we prepared for our vacation in the spirit world, Korra told me that despite the current ruins of Republic City, she felt hopeful for the future of it. "I do too," I said as we headed toward the spirit portal. "In fact, I think it's the perfect time to start looking toward the future."
It was as these words left my mouth that my hand reached out to take Korra's. I may not have had the words for it at the time, but I knew. As we reached the portal, I turned to face her, and she to me. This was my future.
Looking into Korra's eyes, I was certain. This was where my story would truly begin.