For me the best part of this year has been spending more time with the people who I’m closest to. I didn’t see anyone outside of my own family until the end of May. It wasn’t horrible but sometimes you need time apart. I then started to see my two best friends (Sarah and Kara) again after May which was amazing. One thing about my friends is that they never fail to make me laugh. They are the funniest people I’ve ever met (but I would never tell them that). One day we decided to take a trip to a waterfall about an hour away from where we live in central Pennsylvania. It was a small waterfall, but just getting out of the house was amazing.
On the way we stopped at a McDonalds drive thru because we wanted breakfast but somehow it was too late for that (even though it was 10 am). So we got french fries for breakfast instead. We sat and ate it in the parking lot before Sarah announced, “I have to pee.” We asked if she could hold it as we had only just left thirty minutes before that and the inside wasn’t open to customers because of the pandemic. However she just said, “I can’t hold it I have to go so bad,” so the only choice was to go in the woods behind the drive thru. Unfortunately for me Sarah didn’t want to go alone and asked me to walk with her and stand in front of her as she went so no one could see. It was disgusting. After what felt like hours for me we went back to the car and went back on our way.
We laughed at how terrible Kara’s driving was, while holding onto the car for dear life before we eventually got to the waterfall. It only took about 15 minutes after leaving McDonalds to get to the waterfall. There were no parking spaces so we parked at the side of the road. There were a few no parking signs but not anywhere near where we parked. It was about a mile hike to the waterfall after we parked so it didn’t take long to get there. However two minutes into the walk Sarah announced, “I have to pee” …again. So again she went behind some trees and bushes. I was just lucky that time she didn’t make me stand in front of her. About ten minutes later we arrived at the waterfall.
It wasn’t huge but for a waterfall in Central Pennsylvania it was very exciting. There was one thing more exciting for us three girls though: we were going to take really cute pictures for our Instagrams. So obviously that was the first thing we did when we got there. Sadly for us the water was extremely cold so getting in we were yelling and shivering the whole time. We forced smiles through the pain of the cold and got a few quick and very bad pictures with us making ridiculous faces because of how cold we were. After that we put our phones down, climbed to the top and bottom and sat in the freezing water, which eventually we got used to. After about an hour of talking, splashing water at each other, and throwing rock we decided we were starving.
We walked back to the car only to see a piece of orange paper on the windshield: a parking ticket. I said “uhm what’s that,” after noticing the paper after we got in the car. We were all very confused about how because we were not parked anywhere with signs indicating no parking. Kara wasn’t thrilled considering it was her car, but she was able to laugh it off and get over it quickly.
We decided before picking up lunch at Panera we should go home and get changed first, but more importantly Sarah had to pee again. After we got dressed and picked up our food we went to eat it on the hill that overlooks Hershey Park where we live. We sat and ate our mac and cheese, talked and laughed about everything going on in our lives (which wasn’t much considering the pandemic). After that we got back in the car, drove around our small town, blasting music and singing as loud as we could.
The day wasn’t anything special, but it was one of my best days throughout the whole pandemic. That was one of the first days all three of us were able to hangout since the pandemic, and since then we’ve hung out a million times together. Each time we hangout is as fun as that day even when we aren’t going to waterfalls and we are just driving around our town. So while this pandemic has just left everyone with a million uncertainties, I’m happy to have people in my life who I can rely on. Learning that some people are always there for you to make you smile and laugh even when you don’t feel like it has been the best part of this horrible pandemic for me. It’s something I realized that day and many others during this time. While the pandemic has been horrible and stressful, it has also given me an opportunity to see how important it is to surround yourself with good people.
