With Eyes Like Sunsets, Baby

Hello everyone,

Okay, I am sure you are all thinking, "she has posted three blogs this week, but before today, we hadn't heard from her since she had her wisdom teeth extracted...in May." Let me just go ahead and apologize for that - it wasn't right of me to keep all of my thoughts and stories locked away. As a result, I am trying to come back in full force! Lately, I have been sitting at work and dreaming, and drooling, about going to the beach. I started thinking about the last time I went, which was May of this year. My heart quickly dropped as I remembered what a memorable day it was.

I had just finished paying the toll to receive full access to the gateway of paradise, also known as, Destin. As soon as I rolled up my window and began pressing the accelerator, when suddenly, my favorite song, Into Your Arms by The Maine, began flowing through the sound system in my car. I looked to my right and all I could see was crystal clear waters for miles. In the distance, I saw a familiar building, Emerald Grande, which was the condo that my family and I stayed in when we were escaping from reality after my dad passed away.



It looks like a castle, doesn't it?
Just don't go throwing your hair off of the balconies here like Rapunzel.
You'll catch the wrong type of guys doing that.

 Trying to quickly draw myself back from that memory, I turned to my left. The waters kept getting prettier, and I would've sworn they were screaming my name. "Perfection" was the best way to describe everything that I was seeing. Suddenly, I looked into my rear view mirror and things became even more perfect. I found two of my best friends jamming out in the backseat of my car to this "song" that has kept me going for years. Before I knew it, things got really quiet and I heard all three of these wonderful ladies scream, "She has the most amazing...SMILE!" My mind trailed back to my junior year, sitting in Mr. Ossenforts Chemistry class. Shelby, Grace, Anna, and myself all sat very close to each other. That particular year, I was having a hard time taking anything seriously, because right when I left school, everything that involved me was taken way beyond "too seriously". I spent the latter part of my afternoon being fussed at until tears tears formed behind my eyelids, and simply just waiting for my mother to return from work (these two things had nothing in common with each other, as in, my beautiful mother wasn't the one doing all the fussing). I had "fallen from cloud nine", as Katy Perry would put it, that particular year. At night, I would lay in my bed, unable to sleep, just picturing my life the way I thought it would be, which was full of adventure, and mostly just "happy". As a result, my friends saw beyond my fake smiles and lies about being alright, and they would do anything to help remind me what it was like to truly smile, again. In the middle of class, Shelby and I would randomly make eye contact and she would mouth to me, "She had the most amazing...smile"...then she would draw a happy face with her fingers around her mouth. It truly is the small things in life that make the difference. It's our friends who pick you us and dust us off during the hardest of times.

As my mind trailed back from my high school years to quickly find myself driving over a bridge, I rolled down every window and sunroof in my car, and enjoyed the salty breeze on my skin. I couldn't wipe the smile off of my face, even with a piece of sandpaper. Suddenly, in the corners of my eyes, I saw my other best friend who was sitting in the passenger seat, throw up her hands and start singing the chorus to this wonderful melody. I remembered back to the first time I let them hear this song - I was as excited as a third grader who had just completed their multiplication tables, and they just simply smiled at me, trying to keep me satisfied. I can honestly say that I made them learn to love that song. Every time we would gather in my car to take an adventure to the unknown, the first song on the play list had to be this song. Its funny how a melody sounds like a memory, right? At this particular moment, I just looked out the front window of my car, smiling like Sandra Bullock at the end of The Blind Side after she had dropped Michael off at college; like her, I couldn't help but to think that I had an impact on these three ladies' lives, and that is truly the only thing that matters in this world.

"Pay close attention to the beautiful things in this world - they may simply be right under your nose."
You may want to get to know these three ladies...
Not only will they change your lives,
but they are also going to do amazing things in this world that you don't want to miss.

I hope that everyone is enjoying this beautiful Friday. Go outside and take it all in, because you will never get this day back. Have safe and amazing weekends. I am about to pull a Mrs. Wiggins - always wear your seat belts!

Love always,
Haley

"When the tides get too high,
And the sea up underneath get so deep.
And you feel like you're just another person getting lost in the crowd,
Way up high in the nosebleeds.
Uh, because we've both been there, yeah, both of us.
But we still stand tall with our shoulders up.
And even though we always against the odds,
These are the things that've molded us."
Both of Us - B.O.B featuring Taylor Swift