Ever since the 1st grade I've been sure of one thing, I'm going to Paris for my 16th birthday. My elementary school friends could tell you it was one of the only things I was sure would happen in my life. My mom had embedded in my head that instead of having a Sweet 16, her, my best friend's mom, my best friend, and I would go to Paris for both our birthdays. A Sweet 16 on Long Island is a BIG deal, they include your court, a Photo Booth, a candle ceremony, and much more (btw that's just the basics). Now let me introduce my best friend Mackenzie, I've known her basically before I was born, our mothers grew up together and our grandmothers are very close friends. Mackenzie was born July 30th, 7 months after me (my birthday December 17th), we were thick as thieves growing up, well for the short amount of time we actually lived in the same place. Here's the thing, Mackenzie moved to Louisiana when we were both 8 years old, but trust me that didn't stop us. We would Skype constantly, we even sent each other letters, and she even wrote a book in school featuring her and I as penguins. Till the age of 15, we've both gone from NY to Louisiana to visit each other.
Then she would move to England where she currently resides. I've always told her I respect her so much for being able to adapt to change because I wouldn't be able to. Mackenzie makes the best of every situation, she's kind to all, even those who aren't, she's amazingly smart, and I never laugh like I do when I'm with her. I always tell her I'm so lucky to have her as my best friend. Now let me stop with my love letter and move on with the story. At 15 Mackenzie, her mom, and dad would make the move to England, when Annmarie (her mom and a bad ass bitch) was offered an amazing job. My mom just said well I guess we'll just add England to the trip. Now basically my whole life has been leading up to this trip, Mackenzie and I had spent time when we were younger planning on how long we would stay and where, I spent months putting my money to the side to spend in Paris, and constantly daydreamed of walking the streets of the City of Lights. I was so excited the day we just booked our tickets, I couldn't believe the wait would be over in a couple months. If you don't think I'm crazy, well I browsed online websites for hours putting together different looks that I would wear on vacation, I still have the Google slides. Sorry to my parents, but I was basically shitting myself the week before we left, it was finals week which meant regents exams, which meant the chemistry regents. Let's just say science is not my strong suit, I prayed so many times that I would just pass the exam. I was terrified. My Mom and I left for Heathrow Airport on June 27th, security was a breeze (which I was so thankful for because I always get nervous about) we went off to head to get our "dinner"at 4pm. We boarded our plane and let's just say I had some energy, thank you to my parents who upgraded for us to have extra leg room, they gave us champagne which I happily took feeling boujee as ever. Now I'm not so great with sleeping on planes, my screen wasn't working that well (which I think was due to my semi-long acrylic nails) I played the film Casablanca which I had never seen and fell asleep same goes for the updated Mary Poppins film, both times were when they served food as well. When we touched down in London I think I was a little off due partly to the time change. Meeting each other in the airport was not like the movies but it was pretty close. Every time Mackenzie and I are reunited it just feels like the best feeling, you make sure to live every moment because it's most likely the only time we will see each other in a year. The 4 of us instantly fell into our old ways as soon as we got in the car my Mom telling the story of individuals we came across while traveling, and Mackenzie and I singing obnoxiously in the back. We made it to their beautiful home, mind you this is a girls trip strictly, Mackenzie's Dad was in Louisiana. Their home is so beautiful, beautiful French like windows, beautiful garden, and much more you instantly felt at home. I immediately went to sleep for 5 hours, I was exhausted obviously I had a very hard day. My mom and I had breakfast in the afternoon and Mackenzie pulled out her yearbook to let me know the gossip on everyone. With that we dressed up to get ready for dinner, I had constantly been checking my phone to see if my chemistry regents grade had been posted, it hadn't and we headed off to dinner. With that we headed to The Ivy, which is stunning, with its beautiful flower arrangements, and stunning artwork all over. We managed to catch up on all the basics, and at the same time we had many funny stories to tell. Before our dessert arrived I decided to check my phone again to see if my grade had been posted. In a mini scream I exclaimed "I got a 75, I passed". I immediately felt a huge weight being lifted off my shoulders, and it wasn't until that point that I felt the trip had finally begun.
If there's one thing that Mackenzie and I love doing together it's watching terrible movies. It started back in 2017 when she told me we just had to watch Country Crush. We have so many jokes over just this one movie, we even basically had one of the stars of the movie shut down their Instagram accounts because of us, but that's a story for another time. Mackenzie and I knew that once we got back to the house we had to watch a god awful movie and that we did. Mackenzie had selected for us Not Cinderella's Type, I beg of you do not waste your time watching this movie. It's based about a girl and a boy who end up falling in love after he runs over her cat. Yes, you read that correctly, he ran over her cat and they proceeded to fall in love. I think that gives context to how much we made fun of the movie, our mothers asking us several times if we were okay as we were laughing hysterically. Jet lag was a pain in my ass that night but that didn't stop me from putting on my new Urban Outfitters shorts, and pink bag the next morning to head into London.
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