Growing up, I wanted nothing more than to become an actress. It sounds cliche and cheesy, I know, but it was my dream. I wanted to be on TV shows and movies. I would put on skits for my family and (bless their hearts) they would sit through the entire, god-awful plays that I improvised on the spot. My parents knew it had always been a dream of mine to become an actress/singer, so when an opportunity to audition in front of Nickelodeon and Disney Channel scouts arrived, they knew we couldn't pass it up.
The audition was with a company called The Event. What seemed sketchy at first, ended up being a legit company. I went through an audition process and the company decided to send me to Florida to perform a monologue in front of at least twenty scouts from different television networks.
As soon as my mom and I arrived in Florida at the Disney World Resort, we were given itineraries. Prior to going straight to the audition, we (the actors/actresses) had to go into practice rooms to have our monologues revised. I, being the petrified 14-year old that I was, couldn't stop shaking as my nerves began to kick in. Although I was very outgoing in front of my friends and family, I still had a bit of social anxiety whenever I was around strangers.
Once we walked into the room to have our monologues critiqued, I sat down in between a redheaded girl with freckles sprinkled all across her nose and cheeks, and a tall boy wearing glasses and his hair spiked up into a quiff.
"Hey,"
I sheepishly turned to my right and saw the boy staring at me with a grin on his face. I wasn't sure why he was talking to me... maybe he thought I was cute? In my small hometown, most people only spoke to people they knew, and never to strangers. Making small talk with a stranger is something we never did in my community, so the butterflies kicked in when this guy spoke to me.
"Um, hi," I responded.
I didn't intend for it to come off as rude, but I realized that I sounded annoyed and bothered by him; that wasn't the case. Regardless, his smile remained as he introduced himself, "I'm Alex,"
"Maggie," I responded with a small smile.
"Where are you from?" He persisted.
"Illinois,"
His eyes lit up, "Oh, so Chicago?"
Typical. Anybody that isn't from Illinois automatically assumes anyone that lives in the state is from Chicago.
I shook my head, "About two and a half hours south of Chicago."
"Oh," He replied. "Well, I'm from Pennsylvania!"
Before I could respond, the woman that would be critiquing our acting skills walked into the room and we began the class. Once it was over, we all exited the room and I was so thankful to see my mother, but she was talking to somebody else. Turns out, it happened to be Alex's father.
"What a small world!" My mom exclaimed, surprised that I had just happened to meet Alex.
Alex's father piped up, "Well, you and Alex could hang out and attend all of the events together now that you know each other!"
During the entire week that I stayed at the resort, I went everywhere with Alex. We were practically inseparable. If I wasn't practicing my monologues, I was out with Alex exploring the resort, ungracefully falling out of hammocks and sneaking out to the pool at nighttime. Alex was so different from anyone else I had ever met. He was hilarious and his energy was so infectious. I knew that he was somebody that I wanted in my life forever.
Between Alex making me into a sand-maid (a mermaid made out of sand), dancing wildly with me in a crowd of 2,000 strangers and giving me piggy-back rides around the resort, I felt so attached to him.
On the final day of our workshop with The Event, we gave our monologues and prepared to head back home. As my mother and I were leaving the resort, I was saying my goodbyes to the other friends that I had made when I saw Alex's mother walking through the lobby.
"Are you guys leaving?" She asked, rolling a suitcase behind her.
"Yeah," I said somberly. "Where's Alex at?"
"Oh no! He's taking a nap before we leave," She replied.
"Well... tell him I said goodbye."
I was sad that I wasn't going to get to say goodbye to him in person, but I figured once he returned home to his group of friends and continued with his schoolwork, he would soon forget about me.
My mom and I loaded up the car and started to pull out of the parking lot of the resort when I got a phone call. Without checking the caller ID, I picked it up and heard Alex's voice on the other end.
"Mom!" I yelled as she was already turning out onto the main road to exit the resort. "Pull back into the drive-up of the hotel!"
She was confused, but she followed my directions and before she could even park to drop me off out front, I leaped out of the car and met Alex halfway as he ran toward me out of the hotel lobby. The two of us running toward each other was like a slow-motion scene in a movie and was just as cheesy.
As we embraced and were about to depart, I started to tear up a little bit. I wiped the tears away and said my final goodbye and we drove off.
That was the last time I saw Alex... for two years.
We continued to text every day and FaceTime every now and then to keep in contact. Unbeknownst to me, Alex had planned to surprise me for Christmas, and his parents graciously drove him from Pennsylvania to Illinois during the harsh winter.
We spent another entire week together gossiping about boys, going shopping constantly and grabbing coffee with my friends.
Over the past couple years since his visit, we've both become so busy with college, relationships, theater, etc. but we always are able to pick up right where we left off and that's something so special and unique that not a ton of people can have. We met my freshman year of high school and I am now a sophomore in college. It's been six years (going on seven) that we've known each other.
In those six years, Alex has become my rock, the person that I can tell absolutely everything to, and my favorite person to hold inside jokes with. I am so thankful to have one of the most hilarious, genuine, compassionate, loving and amazing people in the world as my best friend.
Who would have thought that an absolute stranger from a thousand miles away would become a lifelong friend?
P.S. Thank goodness for both of our glow-ups.
