September 21st, 2017

The first game of our favourite OHL teams season. Luckily for me, it was an away game only about an hour from Toronto, so I was able to go. I live over three hours away from Erie, Pennsylvania where the team is located, and getting there is not necessarily easy, whether its traffic, weather or a backed up border the drive down never seems to go fast. Previous to the game I had tweeted something about "throwing hands" if a certain player wasnt named captain, and luckily for me she saw this tweet and messaged me about it. the next morning i woke up and saw the simple message, "so did you throw hands or???" seeing as the player i hoped for was not named captain. I quickly answered something like "haha no", and when I hit send i didnt realize that this random girl in my twitter dms would become one of my closest friends.

November 11th, 2017

I woke up to the best text I could have possibly recieved, "WAKE UP YOUR COMING TO SEE ME SOON." I may have only gotten three hours of sleep that night but honestly, i had never felt more awake. I spent over an hour doing my hair and putting on a full face of makeup before grabbing my phone charger, backpack and jersey and hopping in the car for a three hour drive, the first one of the season but I was positive it would not be the last. I had already crossed the border and was about thirty minutes from the mall, when I recieved a text informing me that Meg still had not gotten ready, and that he was driving to get pizza. Honestly, I started to panic. Me and my dad fortunately got stuck in a bit of traffic and only ended up getting to the mall about 10 minutes before Meg did. When we first saw eachother we started laughing and both didn't run because the other person wasn't. After staying in the mall for less then 20 minutes we left and drove to McDonalds, where we had an actual feast, and still one of my favourite memories. We went to the game that night and even though our team lost, it was still such a fun night. I got to meet some of her friends, who I am now also very close with, and also some players after the game. Even though I didnt get to meet my favourite player, I got to meet my best friend.

January 26th - 28th 2018

My first weekend in Erie. Leaving half way through the day Friday and getting there with not much time before the game, me and my parents waited in the car in the parking lot for about 30 minutes as we waited for Meg to arrive. After waiting two months it was obviously great to be reunited again because honestly, facetime was starting to suck. The game was against Hamilton, and we ended up losing, again. After the game there was a bit of chaos, with me trying to let security meet my favourite player, us giving up and me crying to our other friends about it, to me eventually sneaking into the kids club with some random lady who somehow, Meg convinced to pretend to be my mom. End of story I met my favourite player. After the game we had plans to go to IHOP. I was very excited, seeing that I live in Toronto and the closest one to me is in Niagara Falls, the idea of chocolate chip pancakes excited me way more then they probably should have. On the way back to Megs house I ended throwing up, four times. This became a bit of a tradition strangely enough, I tend to throw up when im excited or overwhelmed. Even with the vomit, Jamming in her car to Camp Rock is one of my favourite things to do. The next afternoon Meg, her mom, my mom and dad and I went out for lunch so our parents could meet. We went to the game that night and the Otters lost... again. After a quick trip to Walmart and hanging out in my hotel lobby, we decided goodbyes are too hard and to put it off. We went to breakfast the next morning and ended up twinning, and for the first time I truly didn't know if I was gonna see Meg again this year.

February 23rd 2018

Another three hour car drive after skipping half a day of school just to make sure i would make the game on time. This game the Otters won, which i had yet to see this season, and as a tried to meet my favourite player on the other team Meg got a call from our friend Jillian letting us know that my second favourite player was upstairs. This player knows who me and my friends are, and they even met him the game the weekend before and facetimed me so I could talk to him. In know way am I seeing we are friends with this guy, but its nice to have a relationship with your favourite player and for them to know who you are. After the game we went to Buffalo Wild Wings, another tradition was made that night. They only had the one home game that weekend, so I left the next morning, but not without going out for pancakes the next morning, like always.

March 16th - 18th 2018

The dreaded last two games of the season. If you couldn't tell already by all the losses, the Otters did not make the playoffs. The season came to a close much faster then I thought it was, and honestly I wasn't ready to say goodbye. My favourite player would be playing his last two games, unable to return next season due to age. But beyond that, I wasn't ready to say goodbye to the roadtrips and the sleepovers and the pancakes breakfast and post game trips to Buffalo Wild Wings. But most of all, I wasn't ready to say goodbye to my friends. The second last game came with a loss. A classic trip to BWW after the game resulted in me wearing one of Meg's dads sweaters that happened to be in the trunk of her car. I forgot to bring one and there were players in the restaurant and I was not gonna walk in wearing my bright yellow jersey. Meg and I went back to her house, and I ended up throwing up again... shocker. The next morning I was woken up to Meg bouncing on the bed trying to wake me up. We went out for lunch and ended up beefing with our waiter (which by the way wasn't our fault) and then we went to a dress store so Meg could try on prom dresses, and honestly we were in there for probably an hour and some people probably were not to happy with how many trips we made to and from the dressing room. The last game of the season was an emotional one, the Otters ended up winning at least. After most people had left I ended up crying on the floor of the arena, because I had come to a realization that I may never get to see my favourite player again. We all ended up going back to Jillian's house, where we spent the night and after a midnight trip to Walmart for crackers and cookies, our night was coming to a close. The next morning arrived and obviously I couldn't leave without going for breakfast with Meg. I truly didnt know if I would see her again before next September, so I held onto every possible moment together.

April 9th 2018

St. Catherines is about halfway between Toronto and Erie. Lucky for Meg and I two of our favourite playoff teams were playing each other, one of them being Niagara. So on April 9th Meg and two of our other friends drove from Erie, my dad and I drove from Toronto, along with two of our friends from Buffalo we all met in the middle for a couple hours. Even though I felt sick to my stomach and we were cheering for other teams, it was still a night to remember. This game happened to be on a Monday night which was unfortunate because school the next day was definitely rough but I wouldn't change it for the world.

June 30th - July 6thth 2018

Once again meeting in the middle, this time it was a bit different. Meg and Jillian were meeting my dad and I in Buffalo so we could spend a week together in Toronto. From the first night in Peterborough, the one night and my cottage, the wild days in the city and the crazy night in Niagara Falls that trip truly was, what we called it, a full send. There is so much that we did it could be impossible to write it all here, so heres a quick rundown. We got horrible weather, and by that i mean an average of 35 celsius a day, but that did not stop us. We ended up having to spend the first night sleeping on the couch and floor of my basement just because my room was far to hot. We got awful sunburns at my cottage, and instead of spending the whole day on Tuesday we ended up leaving at around noon because it was just too hot. Once we got to the city we did so many things over a span of a couple days. We went to a Jays game, up the CN Tour, ate so much good food, got lost four times walking to the mall and talked to a lot of random cute boys. We ended up staying in Niagara Falls the last night, where we may have spent over $60 in the arcade. We saw the falls and did a lot of over priced attractions. My favourite part though was that night, when we accidentally distracted a band in our hotel lobby and made several snack runs to the lobby and back. Meg ended up going to the front desk because she found blood on her sheets, which when we got down there realized was hers, sorry housekeeping. The drive to the gas station where Meg and Jill were being picked up was sad, yet we still had fun. Saying goodbye after being together for a whole week was hard, but we had already planned several times to get together in the coming months. After one of the best weeks of my life, and a six hour drive back to my cottage, I had never been more tired. When you are so tired you sleep for hours but still wake up tired and need a nap about an hour later, thats how you know you had a good week. The week spent with my best friends was a week I will cherish forever.

Today, August 14th, 2018

I am currently counting down the days to Thanksgiving. October 5th - 7th is the next time I will see my friends, and yes I somehow convinced my parents to take me to Erie on Thanksgiving weekend. After that, November 3rd is a big date. Meg is moving to Pittsburgh for school and us both being Leafs fans, I am obviously making the trip down for Leafs @ Pens, also Jill will be there too, so a nice big reunion. After that, who knows. But I know that we will always make time to make the trip to see each other whether its 2 hours, 3 hours, or 6 hours, I know we will find a way. Obviously it isn't easy living so far from someone so close to you, and not knowing when you will see each other next, and going months and months with only facetime, texts and social media to keep contact with each other. I'm pretty sure everyone would rather be with someone then talk on the phone. Personally though I wouldn't change a thing. Distance does make the heart grow fonder and it just makes you cherish the time you spend together more. I met my best friend on Twitter, and no mom shes not a murderer.