For those of you who do not know, the beautiful and fabulous the lioness and I have been friends since 2012, and I've been very close to her. However, we live on opposite sides of the world. This obviously made it difficult because timezones and the hope of meeting was absolutely slim.
This changed when her family decided to come on vacation here, and we were able to plan a day to meet. That day was yesterday.
I'm still in shock that this all actually happened, that I actually met her, talked to her, heard her British accent in person, hugged her, everything seems surreal. It put the biggest smile on my face - I'm grinning right now remembering all of this. I'm going to recount the day with pictures and no one can stop me
The day started off absolutely nerve-racking. I had unsurprisingly woken up late so getting ready was a rush, and it was an hour drive to where we would see each other. Plus, my parents had yet to leave work so we could go. We had finally left at around 11.
At 11:56 I had gotten a text that she was in the store waiting, but I was still about 20 minutes away. I was panicking because I was afraid she would leave. I didn't even make it to the mall we were meeting at until around 12:20, which meant I had kept her waiting for about half an hour. SORRY BEKAH!
This is my favorite part.
I walked into the entrance and I was freaking out because I had no idea how to get to Aeropostale (the store we were going to see each other). I was actually in a really panicky mood searching at the mall directory and trying to figure out whether to go straight or turn to the left. My mom had taken off straight to find the store, and I was with my father. Right when I was about to turn to the left - the wrong way - my sister furiously tapped my shoulder and started whispering to me. "Jessica, Jessica! Hey, isn't that her?"
When I turned around, I saw her back facing to me and she was looking for the mall directory. I recognized her immediately because of the hat and colored hair, and my stomach was dropping because I was incredibly nervous on introducing myself in person. But even if, the moment I saw her I immediately walked over to her and I said, "Bekah?!"
As soon as she saw me, we were running to each other. I hugged her so tightly and I started shaking and laughing. I started babbling about her height and nervously flicking my hair and chuckling because I was just an uncontrollably awkward mess. Luckily, my mother got pictures of the moment we met. Thanks mom.
We had planned a bag exchange where she would bring me a bag of goodies from England and I would bring her a bag of goodies from here in America as well as ordinary fandom things such as Game of Thrones calendars and Harry Potter mugs. We had started talking so much we had forgotten about the bags and we had to be reminded by my sister.
After that, we started walking together in desperate attempts to find a Starbucks somewhere. When we did go, I met her dad who now believes we met in Universal in 2012 and that's how we know each other. What a great story, am I right?
Soon after the Mocha frappuccinos and Chai Teas we ended up in Taco Bell because she had never been to one. We ate there but barely finished all the tacos we ordered.
Surprisingly an hour and a half had passed around this time, so her dad said they were ready to leave. Before she could, we went inside HotTopic for several minutes and got matching Ministry of Magic shirts. I got a Fall Out Boy shirt too but not important.
When we stepped out, they were waiting for and I asked her if she really had to leave. It sucked having to say goodbye because I was having a blast but even if, I was still smiling so much from the experience. We took two more pictures together, and then I hugged her really tightly and promised her I would try my hardest to go to London this or next year to visit them. After that, we both parted ways.
For those of you who have online friends and are waiting for the day you can meet them, know that no matter how far away they are or how close they are, the opportunity will one day show up. It could be tomorrow, could be in a year. But the day will come you'll meet in person and I promise you it is the best feeling ever.
Bekah, you have been my closest friend for the longest time and you hold a special place in my heart no matter how far you are. Ugh, I'm just staring at our Polaroid and the Terribly British Post Card laughing and smiling right now because you have NO idea how happy I am I got to meet you. Don't worry because one day I'll see you again! Thank you for existing and being awesome.
This blog is really long but I feel like I needed this to look back one day and laugh and smile and remember this day. I'm incredibly happy I got to experience this yesterday.