Leaving The Gateways To Fantasy

     I would like to start of this blog entry with a simple and plainly true statement: I love my friends. Every once and a while, I'll be the characteristic teenager; feeling like I'm alone, that no one understands, the basic angst. However, I am always - almost immediately - reminded that I am the opposite of alone. I have incredible friends that will understand no matter what. And even if they don't understand, they'll sit by my side, hold my hand, and tell me everything will be alright. Last weekend, I departed for Disney World with my school's marching band, a trip of a lifetime. When eighty high school band members are thrown together for almost every hour of every day for nearly a week, problems are bound to arise. Blossoming relationships, ending relationships; new friendships, and bickering between circles of old friends. I was scheduled to share a hotel room with three of my closest friends, and I love them each dearly. Honestly, I was expecting to be slightly annoyed with each of them at least a little bit by the end of the trip. It's natural when four girls share a room for several nights that eventually, they'll get a little sick of each other. I couldn't have been more wrong.
     After this trip, I love each of my roommates just as much, if not much more than I did coming into the experience. This vacation also brought me closer to a few new friends. I don't know if it was the bond of marching band, the sense of community after a twenty two hour bus ride, or maybe a little Disney magic, but I feel like we all came out of this trip better people than we were coming into it. It feels like we were all bonded together a bit more through being away from our families at the holiday, sharing the good times and the not so good, seeing each other at our best and our worst. Now that the "trip of our lives" is over, any time anything Disney-related is mentioned in our presence, my friends and I all feel a pang of "it's over" syndrome in the pit of our stomachs. However, I feel like I can come away from this trip with some amazing memories, great friendships, and no regrets.
     I don't want to feel sad that this trip is over anymore. Instead, I've decided to look towards the future. Instead of reminiscing how much we wish we could go back and do last week all over again, maybe we should plan a fantasy senior trip back to Disney World, even if we only ever just talk about it. Who knows? Stranger things have happened. And with the help of some Disney magic, anything is possible. I have dozens of examples of how my friends helped me, surprised me, made me smile, made me laugh, encouraged me, humored me, etc. But all I have to say is that - while it's extremely cliche - I can honestly say that on Thanksgiving, I was never more thankful to have such amazing friends.

P.S. To my wonderful roommates: Turkey Spooning and Everest Helen-Kellering For Life