Every year my school/parish would hold a festival to raise money for the parish. This festival was named the Festival of Roses after Saint Juan Diego because of two reasons. One reason is because Our Lady of Guadalupe sent him a sign through roses and two, our high school is named after him: Juan Diego Catholic High School. The Festival of Roses was always a fun time because they had so many activities. They had roller coasters, carnival games, bingo, and baking contests. One year they even brought in a paintball company. They also had a beer tent where all the parents would go while their kids went and played. I remember how I always looked forward to festival time, how I always had the best time there. I can’t write about all the times I went so I will write about the one I treasure the most.

It was the Saturday of Festival weekend. I didn’t get much sleep the night before because I didn’t get home until close to 11 p.m. I was so tired, but I knew that I didn’t have that much time left, that the weekend will come and go in a blink of an eye. So I got up (though grouchy at the time), got dressed and got ready for the day. My mom wouldn’t let me out of the house until I ate my breakfast. I knew she just cared about me, like she does now, but I couldn’t help but wonder what the day was going to be like. I didn’t want to sit down and waste time, but I did anyway knowing I won’t be leaving the house until I did what she asked me to do.

Afterwards I rushed out the door and jumped into the “truck”. The “truck”, as we called it, was an old blue van with a dent in it; it was always my favorite car. It held so many stories, memories. I could talk for hours about that old beat up van every one called the “truck”, but I’ll save that for another day and age.

We pulled up into the packed parking lot, like I knew it would be because it seemed that there was never enough room for everyone in that parking lot even though in just one week there will be nothing but room. We spent a good 10 minutes looking for a space, but it felt like a never ending eternity. I just wanted to go and be with my friends. After that failed attempt my mom just decided to drop me off. Right when I got out I saw two of my closest friends, Brittney and Gaby. They were standing right next to each other, walking away from me. I called their names out and they turned to see me running up to them. They instantly smiled and waited for me. The first thing they asked was what took me so long, and I replied “there wasn’t a single parking space opened, life sucks sometimes”. I never knew how right that statement was at the time.

As I walked next my friends I notice it went from shortest to tallest, me being the tallest, Gaby being the shortest, and Brittney was in the middle. Our hair color was the same as well, Gaby with a light brown, Brittney with like a dirty blonde, and me with my dark brown hair which resembles more to black color than a brown color. It seemed at times that I was the odd man out, not just because of our psychical appearances. But none of that mattered, because they were both my friends, one longer than the other. Brittney and I have been friends since kindergarten. We were inseparable. We did almost everything together; we even went on a few vacations together. Gaby and I have only been friends since 7th grade, but I love her none the less. Half way through our 8th grade year she left and moved to Oregon so that’s why I was so excited to get here. To spend time with her like we did before the move.

We walked around for a while just talking about the stupidest things only the way girls can. After that we decided to go on some rides. We went on the teacups only a couple times because when I go on them I go all out. Turning the wheel until the ride is over, sometimes even when the ride was over making us sick to our stomachs. We made two of our friends named Bill and Dustin to go on the ride with us. They didn’t believe we could go that fast so we had to show them wrong. We were so squished, but laughing through the whole thing.

Then we went on this ride called the hammer. It was a two rider only ride, so I sat that one out and stood next to the ride talking to Dustin. Out of the corner of my eye I see something fly from the ride. When I see it hit the ground I realized it was Gaby’s phone. So I asked the guy to give it to me so I could see the damage. There had to be damage I thought. It fell from close to thirty feet high. Right when the guy handed me her phone, I busted out laughing. I was right there was damage; there was a crack in her case. The phone was perfect otherwise. I yelled up at them that there was only a small crack in her case. Even from where I stood on the ground I could hear them laughing. I remember screaming up at her, saying “you are the luckiest person I know!”, and that moment she was, but not until a little later did I take that back.

We went inside to the bathroom and still talking about the “impenetrable” phone. While we were in there Gaby dropped her phone, again. This time when she picked it up there was a giant crack on the screen. We all thought it was so funny. I wondered how that was even possible. How the phone broke from only a five foot drop, but not from a thirty foot drop still doesn’t make sense. It happened none the less though.

We walked out the bathroom laughing our heads off. People were looking at us so weird. Considering we were coming out the bathroom, I understood their confusion, but those looks only made us laugh harder. I can’t even imagine what was going through their mind, but I didn’t care. Once we finally stopped laughing, which took a very long time, we decided to go to get some lunch. At the festival they had a food tent run by our own Knights of Columbus. The line was so long, but we didn’t have to wait in the line because my dad was working in the food tent at the time. I can remember everyone’s look when we walked right in front of them, fun times. While we were eating inside another one of our friends, who didn’t go to the school anymore, came over to talk to us. I can’t remember what we talked about, but I do remember it was fun to see him again.

When we finished eating we went back outside and just walked around the school grounds. We got bored so we walked over to the field that was right next to the festival. We just sat down, listening to the music from someone’s iPhone. As we talked and talked the sun was setting, which gave the sky an orange tint. You could hear the screaming and laughing from the fair, but it seemed farther away than it actually was, at least it did to me. Looking up at the sky with my friends laying down next to me, that was one of the best moments of the day.

Later we walked back to the festival. I couldn’t tell you how long we stayed there, even if I wanted to. It felt like forever, but at the same time not long enough. We ran into our group of friends. So now as a big group, we walked around the festival one more time. We all went on the scrambler, which one seat was only meant to fit three, but somehow we fit five. Some people called this ride “The Squisher” because there was this one spot where you got squished by everyone else on the ride. Guess who got that spot, yup that’s me. While we were riding we were all laughing, but it felt like my ribs were getting crushed. It wasn’t our smartest idea ever, but we still had fun.

I don’t know when but sometime later we were all thirsty so we walked over to this smoothie place called Jamba Juice. Now Jamba Juice was not that close so we walked about 10 minutes to get there. It was a fun walk though. We played “Thrift Shop” by Macklemore, which was very popular. We blasted the music as loud as we could and were dancing and acting like idiots while we walked. Again, I didn’t even have an idea what others thought about us and again I didn’t want to know what others thought about us. We got there and ordered our drinks and were off again. There was this intersection where we had to wait for the sign to show when to go. When it did though it only lasted a few seconds so we all were stuck in the of the street. We screamed and ran across the street as fast as we could. People still honked at us though and one driver rolled down his window and swore at us. We did what any person would have done. We laughed.

It seemed that we were laughing all day, only stopping to breath. This is how I remember that day, that day full of laughter and friendship. I was right when it didn’t last long. In the next few days the rides were all taken down, decorations put back in storage, people going back to their normal lives. Everyone would talk about their own stories from the Festival of Roses, but eventually they will stop, talking about the next thing that will happen. It would seem that everyone forgot about their time during that weekend, until the next year. The next year won’t be the same; it won’t be the same experience, same stories, and same people. Time moves on and so do the people. You can’t repeat those days, even when that is the only thing you want. How can you go back to do the same thing and not remember that it could be so different, so much better? The answer is easy, you can’t.