So last night, I went out with two of my old friends from high school. Yesterday’s date, 11/11, is a regional holiday where we all play dress up as part of an old tradition. Therefor, my two friends were dressed as a koala bear and a dragon and I was Snow White for the night. Please keep reading now, I promise you this won’t be some irrelevant party-post, it was just kinda essential to give you this information. I wouldn’t want the internet to think I just like to occasionally dress up as Snow White to raise eyebrows and get free shots.
Last night, the Snow White version of me encountered an incredible example of how life is all about the little things but also how those little things are actually part of the most important lessons of our lives.
I was outside a bar waiting for my friends to return from the bathroom when I suddenly heard someone shout from behind; ohhh there she is!!! Snow White!!! … Now, this happens quite often because no matter how drunk people are, they never tend to forget their Disney princesses. The shouting continued and reluctantly I turned to face what I thought would be the next weird person asking about the whereabouts of my dwarfs.
Instead, when I turned, I actually saw a group of seven ladies dressed up with white beards and red pointy heads. Seven dwarfs had found me, their Snow White..! At that point I was a little tipsy (sorry mum) and I thought finding these dwarfs was the most hilarious thing ever. They sat me down with them, fed me more beer and once we had finally recovered from laughing we started talking. This is where the amazingness begins. These lovely lady-dwarfs happened to be a group of girlfriends who met in high school, stayed in touch and now, after a 30-year!!! friendship, were still sitting there, enjoying drinks together and laughing their way through the night. For my friends and me, they were around the mum-age but literally the nicest people ever. All of them grew up in the same town but as life went on, moved throughout the country. Obviously we talked some small talk but then they told us the story behind the dwarf costumes. They used to be a group of eight girls, partying together in high school. They all grew up, moved out and started their new college life and eventually family life. But they kept in touch and had a tradition of celebrating 11/11 together so annual reunions were guaranteed, no matter how busy their schedule. Their personal joke-plan had always been to one day celebrate 11/11 as Snow White and the seven dwarfs. Unfortunately Life happend and they just never got around to actually stick to their plan. Then, this past summer, fate struck. Their Snow White, the eighth member of this lovely group, passed away, leaving the seven ladies without their princess and without any possibility to ever enact their plan. But time goes on and so came this years 11/11 without her.. As hard as it must have been, they did decide on dressing up as dwarfs and dedicated the night to their Snow White who could only be there in spirit.
At this point, I can assure you my tipsiness had passed. I had no words. The beauty of this story lies within these ladies tho. I was a little scared the whole conversation would now be hard and heavy but instead, they all smiled. It was so precious, I have a hard time writing this down. They told me and my friends how they thought this was so special; to just bump into us; a snow-white and her friends from high school, reunited for a night of celebrations on 11/11.. We asked them what their biggest lesson had been so far and they talked about friendship. The special kind of friendship that starts early but actually survives all the changes in lives that come afterwards. They told us how we should never take those friendships for granted because they are rare, very rare. They spoke with such love about their group that we could do nothing but see them as our ultimate example. They stuck together, with ups and downs sure, but never fully apart. All in all, I guess this conversation only lasted about 30 minutes. Afterwards, there was more alcohol, more dancing and more laughing between my friends and me but ever since I woke up this morning, those 30 minutes are stuck in my head. I don’t even know their names but I’m so grateful for meeting them. I can do nothing but bless their story and hope that I will have friends like that in 30 years. My koala bear and dragon friends; I don’t see you two very often but I sure hope we will live up to this beautiful example.
Their Snow White should be so proud up there, cheers on her.
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