I recently took a trip to Disney World with my class for our senior trip. This trip was everything and more than I imagined. I didn’t have many expectations going in to it. I figured I would have a fun time and ride some roller coasters and hoped to feel some of the Disney magic that’s always spoken of. However the magic that I felt did not just stem from Mickey Mouse or Cinderella, but also from my friends with whom I spent the week with.
Everybody had a whole new attitude about everything from the moment we arrived in the happiest place on earth. It was so cool to see the girls around me smiling from ear to ear literally skipping around after a long, claustrophobic bus ride. There was something so sweet about all of us being together while we were away from our normal everyday lives in something so nostalgic and fun. It seemed as if everybody left all of their cares in our snowy parking lot back home and were ready for a few days of bliss and child like wonder.
Disney World is said to be “The Happiest Place on Earth” and I can agree with that 100%. But I think what made the four days I spent there so happy were the people I was with. We spent every waking minute together on this trip. Together we ran through parks, spent way too much money on subpar food, stood in long lines, rode rides that brought us back to our childhood, watched fireworks, watched Mickey Mouse as the defeated the villains of Disney, and did every bit of this laughing and loving on each other.
It’s fun to be a kid. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: all of us have a kid in us. It’s fun to still believe in the magic of dreaming and it’s fun to believe in those dreams. It’s fun to still get excited over the little things. Heck yes my friends and I watched all of the Disney characters dance around on a boat while fireworks went off surrounding Mickey Mouse at Fantasmic and heck yes we all smiled, cried, and screamed about it all at once. Nothing else really mattered in this moment other than the fact that we were together holding hands watching flashbacks from our childhood float in a giant boat in water that was literally on fire in front of us.
Let’s be real, waiting in line is usually rough and brings out the impatient side in people. But not on this trip. Yes, my friends and I much preferred the rides without 100-minute lines, but that honestly did not stop us. Because that was 100 minutes we were spending in each other’s company. The lines did not even feel like much most of the time because we were always talking or playing some random game that we would play when we were little. In theory things probably got really long and maybe we were a little antsy, but we were all too excited to be with each other while acting a fool. I once heard that it’s not what you’re doing, but whom you are with. That’s what we all kept saying together as we stood with each other in lines or ran through parks to catch a ride or spun too fast on tea cups with. None of that would have been as fun or as magical if we had not been with each other in the best of spirits.
When riding rollercoasters there is an option to ride single rider with a shorter wait time. We did this a few times but in all honesty I low key much preferred to wait in line with my peeps so I could ride with them rather than sit next to some random parent. I came to learn that screaming with your hands in the air on a ride is much more enjoyable next to a homie who is doing it right there next to you. I think that’s kind of how life is. It’s more enjoyable to do life with people beside you who are willing to let their own freak flag fly with you. It’s cool to be with people who make the weird little things enjoyable but also celebrate the big things with you. We were put on this Earth for each other friends and so that we can love each other and ride the coaster of life together.
I think it’s important whom we choose to ride with through life. We need people around us who will be kids with us and push us to dream like no other. We need people who are willing to wait with us in our own seasons of waiting and who will skip with us when we’re feeling it.
It could be kind of cool if we treated our lives like we were at Disney-if we treated the places we went like they were full of happiness and magic. We could let old things continue to amaze us and be surprised and excited about new things that come our way. We would be doing life the way it was meant to be lived. Life was created to be enjoyed, not just endured-kind of like waiting in line.
So I encourage you to find somebody who will sit beside you with their hands in the air screaming and smiling at what comes next! Life is de bubble peeps so enjoy it.
Caroline Elise Mitchell 