17-year-old Maggie is on the cusp of graduating high school. Faced with an unknown future, she s desperate for one thing: the perfect final year. And she won t let anything, even her crippling anxiety, stand in her way. She s determined to make the most of the time she has left and to do it with her group a mismatched bunch who Maggie loves fiercely. At first, things seem to be going well. That is, until Maggie discovers her dad has been lying to her, and a spark with her best friend Piper turns into an all-consuming desire. As Maggie s anxiety spirals out of control, she struggles to keep her mind and her friends from completely falling apart. Long drives, longer nights, parties, the formal, final exams as time ticks down for Maggie, she begins to wonder what the perfect year actually means. Will she and her friends find their place in the great, unknown world? Can they decide who they re going to be? Who they should be? Told through a series of intimate diary entries, The Way We Once Were is a story of love, loss, and how we find each other, even in our darkest moments.