This past August, I left New Jersey with absolutely no idea when I would return to see my best friends. With my sister and I attending Oklahoma State, my parents were in full swing, packing and ready to move to South Texas. With the unfortunate hurricane that the people of southern Texas had to endure, my parents move schedule was put on hold. I learned from my mom that my sister and I would be traveling back to New Jersey for winter break. At this point I knew EXACTLY what had to happen...

A SURPRISE!

For the next four months, my family and school friends were sworn to secrecy over my travel plans home. It took some harmless lies and exaggerating, but I strung my best friends along for the entire fall semester. It was hard to do because I missed them more than anything. It broke my heart to see their faces when I would tell each of them over FaceTime that I had no idea when the next time I would see them would be. However deep down inside, my devious and cynical scheme was brewing, and I couldn't help but become more and more excited.

On December 18th, my sister and I flew home to New Jersey. However, the surprise was not complete. My family was not allowed to post anything on Facebook regarding us returning until I was done seeing my friends. Let me walk you through my day after landing:

While this wasn't a surprise, reuniting with my dog after five months was an absolute blessing. Here's a cute pic :

Next up was Matt. Matt technically wasn't surprised since he had known for four months. However seeing him was amazing and I couldn't thank him enough for helping me keep the secret. Here's the secret keeper himself:

Candace came next however, she threw me for a loop. While in the airport she Snapchatted me crying, telling me how sick she was and that she didn't want to go to work. My surprise depended on her going to work so I ever-so-kindly told her to suck it up. My dad helped out with this one by walking into her store and asking for help to buy me something. He told her he had to text me but he texted me to walk in and as I walked through the storefront, Candace bolted to me, and I swear we hugged for five minutes straight. Take a look:

The final feat of the night was to surprise my best friend Daphne. Earlier that week, I reached out to her sister to help me sneak in to surprise her. So with Michelle's help, (and cluing me in on the Christmas PJ party), I snuck in through the garage, and walked in on Daphne and Michelle making Christmas cookies. She was so surprised, and plenty of profanity left her mouth. I was able to deliver the best Christmas gift to Daph, and not to sound conceited, but it was me!

That concluded my surprises, though the rest of my high school friends were excited to have me home. At this point I released the chains and social media learned about my return to Jersey. It was an eventful and rewarding day for all. I had an amazing and festive two weeks with my friends, but I sure did start to miss my roommate and Stillwater, Oklahoma.