The Story of Us

Registration Day

My mother and I pull into the lot of the hotel conference center where I'd be staying. I could feel my stomach drop. That feeling downhill on a roller coaster but 10 times longer and more painful. We pull up to the valet and I start to get my bags out of the car. "I'll go park the car and then we'll go register." My mom tells me as she leaves me aside the curb of the hotel. I start through the revolving doors to read a sign worded "NYLF Registration This Way" with an arrow to the left. "I haven't signed in yet." Thinking to myself. "I can just leave now and they can't make me stay. They'll never know who I am or was, my purpose, my life story. I don't have to do this." I sit on the bench in the lobby as I watch the other students drag suitcases through the door and hug their goodbyes. A small amount of relief rushed over as I saw my mom walk towards me. We followed the signs and blue carpeted hallways to a table reading "Room Keys". The man behind the table then proceeded to tell me my room isn't ready yet and that I need to be registered upstairs and my mom had to go to another room for a parent orientation. A little flustered, I tell my mom to meet me upstairs when she's done and I begin upstairs with even more anxiety. From the middle of the grand stairwell, I could already see the growing registration line. I step behind a girl about my age who almost immediately turns around to introduce herself. Her name was Jen, about 5'8", and was wearing knee length cut jean shorts. Within the first five minutes I had made a friend. At that moment I know I was gonna enjoy this week.
            After registering, the advisors shove us all into a large room. We have name badges listing our names, home towns, and groups. To my good fortune, Jen was in my group and my mom had told me my friend Dan from school was there as well. So I knew two people of the four hundred. One advisor stands on a table with a mic and directs us to converse with strangers. Almost instantaneously I become a different person. If you would ask any  of my friends back home, they'd tell you I didn't talk much, wasn't very fun, and wasn't very outgoing. In this big room full of people, I began to build a new personality. I was introducing myself left and right, making jokes, having normal teenage conversations with these great people. I meet up with Jen and introduce her to Dan since it was crazy we went to the same school. Jen had me meet some other people she found from our group and we all kinda stuck together. Jen, Karen, Trish, and Melissa seemed as though we'd been friends for years already. After about an hour they tell everyone who had their room key they could go change into professional clothes and meet for dinner at five. Of course my room still wasn't ready so I was left in the room with about 20 other girls. One or two of these girls would be my roommate. The anxiety began to kick in again. After another 20 minutes, an advisor comes in with my room key and I follow my roommate to our room on the fourth floor. Her name was Donna. She seemed a bit irritated about just getting the room 15 minutes before dinner so I tried not to make too much conversation. Thankfully she was nice enough to wait for me to get ready so we could walk to the dining hall together. As we walked in, she immediately finds her new friends and I searched for mine. I spot Jen and the empty chair next to her and take my seat. To my left sat Trish, who was fairly quiet at the meet and greet. "Hey Emma do you want to go get water?" Shocked she had such a confident voice I followed her. Dinner wasn't filled with  awkward "getting to know you" questions, but more just anyone who had something to say could throw it in. The food wasn't appetizing but there was cake for dessert and that was good enough for me. As people left to go back to their room before our meeting, we stayed and talked. We were about to leave when three guys come up to the table and seat themselves across from us. "We came to socialize" the one named Zac says. He had met Karen during the meet and greet and they lived in neighboring towns and apparently hit it off. His friends, Steven and Myles sat awkwardly as Zac flirted with Karen. Myself, being the new person I am, introduced myself to Steven for I had already met Myles since he's in my group. Steven had a small flag pin on his blazer and I asked what it was for. His remark? He was The President of the United States. From there on, I called him The President, and we tossed sarcasm back and fourth. I give him my phone number and we disperse to our meetings. I didn't think much of it, but Steven had enjoyed our smart remarks we considered flirting. After the meeting, we're given 15 minutes bedtime room check to attempt to buy edible snacks from the lobby. I skip the line and go back to my room, tired enough as is. My roommate showers, I shower, and I receive a text. It was from Steven. To my surprise he took my "text me sometime" literally. I was way to tired to have a lively conversation so I just shut off the lights and attempt to sleep in a bed that's not my own. One day down, five more to go.