Nostalgia

Ah high school. The days (they tell us) we will look back on and wish we could get back. I have good and bad memories from high school, but who doesn’t? When I think back on senior year, one night sticks out to me that I wish I could relive over and over.

Being an athlete at my school was always a big part of who I was. Not because of the sports themselves but the friends I made within them. Playing on the basketball team was particularly special to me as I had been playing with my 4 best friends for many years.  I had been playing with Addie, Hannah and Katlynn since 2nd grade, and had been friends with them for many longer. I had only been playing–and friends with–Emma for 4 years, but that’s because she moved into town when we were freshman. We grew even closer during my senior year, because there were only 6 people really on the varsity team. Participation in girls sports is tangent I could go on forever but will spare everyone this time. Anyway, many trips to after-practice Taco-Bell, Bdubs, and Fiesta Charra (…there’s a theme here) were taken between the five of us and our friendships had never been stronger.

The best after basketball adventure happened one day when no one expected it would. It was a Saturday in February and we had just finished the game and were all in the locker room talking when Hannah was telling us about how she and her boyfriend Evan were going to The Web (a laser tag/mini golf/go kart arcade place). Now, like I said, we are a really close group of friends so when Emma blurted out “can I come?!” and the rest of us emphasized her it really wasn’t an invasion on their date, and we all knew Evan liked hanging out with us anyway. We sat around talking logistics of how we would get there for a little while Hannah was getting ready, but sadly the rest of us had to go smelling like sweat and nastiness. Katlynn decided she wasn’t going to go because she was going to hang out with her boyfriend that night, but the other 3 of us were so stoked to go (our moods were already boosted because it was 60 degrees in February and could wear shorts outside honestly).

It took awhile but we finally made our way out to the parking lot to decide who would drive. We decided on Emma because she had the nicest car and we wanted a comfortable ride. Evan showed up and to no surprise he didn’t have a problem of all of us hijacking their date, especially since we let him pick where we were going to get dinner. We had the best, and I mean the BEST, burgers ever from this little restaurant no one had ever tried on the way there. When we finally go to The Web, we couldn’t decide what we wanted to do first. We bought our laser tag tickets, but since that was the main attraction, we had to wait a little to join a game. We decided on glow in the dark mini golf while we waited–I lost…badly. Laser tag was so awesome, it was with a bunch of 10 year old boys who took it so seriously and I don’t think I’ve ever sweat that much in my life, and that’s coming from someone who had just played every minute of a basketball game earlier that day. After laser tag we went and go UDF, the best ice cream ever, and just sat and talked outside for a bit.

This is the part of the night that I wished could have lasted forever:

We went back to the school because all of our cars were there, but had no desire to go home. It was about 9pm by now. We were just sitting in Emma’s car bumpin some great throwback tunes when all of the sudden I looked at Addie and decided to challenge her to a dance off. Of course the only song for this situation was “Walk it Out” because lil John is a must when attempting to destroy someone with my fire moves. Emma was the DJ and camera women for this and Addie and I made complete fools of ourselves, but non one was around, we were hopped up on ice cream, and the safety of good friends is enough to make anyone dance. Then Hannah and Emma danced off and we even got Evan to challenge Hannah, though he was really resistant at first we made sure to cheer him on hard and give him the confidence to do it. That is a moment in time I hope I never forget because that’s when I really realized that my friends are the greatest.

We finished out the night jammin to more music, hitting around a volleyball I had in my trunk, and ringing the victory bell on the football field (since it never gets rung for the its real purpose sadly). The night had to come to an end because we really weren’t sure if we were allowed on school property that late and kept a close eye on the long driveway for any sign of cops. The hair on our necks stood up whenever we thought we even heard a car and we finally just decided not to test our luck and go home. Throughout the night, there kept being moments where I just stopped and looked at my friends being their purest selves and wishing it would never end, that we would never grow up, never go off to different colleges, never drift apart.

To this day we still have our snapchat group, call ourselves “Baller” (I know so odd but it’s us). We talk all the time and I was really fearing nothing, but I still think back on that night. It wasn’t planned at all which is weird to me because I always like to have a plan. I guess though thats how the best memories are made, unexpectedly and spontaneously.