The Best Nights

I just recently turned 17 and in little less than a year I'll be 18 and a legal adult. I'm as excited as I am nervous. The main reason for my excitement is because that date will be my golden birthday (golden birthday is when the date you were born corresponds with how old you are turning). I'll be turning 18 on the 18th of October of 2018 (a reason why my favorite number is 18). That isn't the reason for this post though, rather this a post wondering about the future but also remembering myself as a child and teenager. There are memories that happen in these years that I will be reminiscing over when my hair turns white. These are memories that my kids will be able to recite word for word because of my constant nagging of my past. 

The main stories I'm going to tell is about Friday nights and Saturday nights, just hanging out with my friends. Going to the movies, sitting in the very front row because we all were late and there weren't any seat in other places. Laughing, crying, and gagging at all the wrong times and spilling all of our popcorn on the floor (and sometimes on the person three seats away). As the lights turn back on we just sit there and soak in the moment, or just scream random things. We scuttle, hobble, and waddle out of the theater trying to wake up our legs, and then cry in pain as the bright lights bring us back to reality. We leave the building and head to the Dairy Queen across the parking lot. The ones who failed to bring the appropriate clothing for the chill night sprint to Dairy Queen and those that did just walk and complain. We enter the Dairy Queen and huddle by the soda machines, staring at the menu like baby birds look at their moms for food. We wait until the braver of us finally decide to talk to the person at the cash register and order their food. After each person orders we look for a table that could fit all of us. That usually means the long bench near the front windows. The process of eating the foods is an experience of its own. It involves french fries disappearing from someones tray, ice cream being thrown at someones sweatshirt, and like everything we do a lot of squeals. At the end of the night we scramble into cars and play rock paper scissors to not be in the car of the person who most recently got their license. We go to our houses, look into our wallets and wonder where the $50 we started with went. 

Believe it or not coming up with plans for the evening weren't a piece of cake. We usually had the idea to hang out a week previously but don't voice it until 2 hours before the movie begins. This leads to three possible options: A. We actually get a  plan together and go to the movie, B. We don't think we can  make it to the movie but we just got to someones house and hang out, and C. We just bail and never end up going out. Going back to the second option which was to hang at someones house. After we decide to hang out at someones house there is one small problem; who is going to sacrifice their for the storm we were going to create (something always ends up breaking). If that ever gets sorted out pizza is ordered and we head over to the house. You want to be one of the first people to the house because as soon as you're there it is open season on the pizza and other food. If you're last...unlucky that's natural selection. After we eat all we can, we sit in a circle and just do some face to face talking (with an exception to that one person who is being anti-social on their phone). We get bored quite quickly and go outside no matter how cold it is. Sometimes we go to Carle Park and play flashlight tag, or we just run around and climbed trees. After about 5 minutes we regret our decision of going outside. We run back inside and go and watch a movie or spend 45 minutes arguing what movie to watch and end up watching "Friends" or something. Around 10-11pm we all trickle home with a happy heart. 

These are the nights that are the best. These are the times remind me how lucky I am to have the friends I have. They're nights that I wish could last forever and give me a feeling inside that I never want to end. As we all get older we haven't been hanging out as much. In the next few years we will all go our separate ways across the country for college. We won't have the time for those nights. I guess there isn't any great way to end this but I believe you catch my drift. Hang out with your friends as much as you can before they all go away and you're the one sitting in front of your newly bought house wondering where the time went. I remember something Lisa told my history class earlier this year, It was something about if you aren't making time for your friends are they really your friends? Think that over, and have a nice night.