Happy Birthday, Sara!

Today is my best friend Sara's 24th birthday! We've known each other since we were elementary kids, but have been best friends for about 7 years. Not that long ago, she and I celebrated our birthdays together by taking in a fantastic show in Montreal featuring the Cirque du Soleil performing to the music of Michael Jackson. For today, allow me to rewind and  take a look back at our friendship which hopefully help to explain why I consider her to be my best friend. 

~ the memories we have shared on the Band and Choir trips of our high school days 

~ cruising to Tim Horton's in my purple Grand Prix

~ road kills 

~ always being my back up singer :) 

~ all of the hilarious sleepovers 

~ holding my hand through some of the toughest times in my life 

~ thoughtful presents, like the dreamcatcher 

~ taking me out on my 19th birthday when all of my other friends were still underage 

~ guitar hero, ddr, and singstar battles 

~ Montreal 2012 

~ seeing Tegan and Sara together <3

~ and all of the Hey Rosetta! concerts 

~ prom crashing!! 

~ cheering for my brother at many of his hockey games with me 

~ having your family take me in like one of their own 

~ the laugh attacks 

~ bath fall fair! 

~ (you being a bad influence haha) and getting tattoos together 

And as we approach this new phase in our friendship, I see our bond getting stronger and sticking through the distance. 

Happy Birthday Sara! I hope your day is just as fabulous as you are <3

Guys, I Graduated!

And with that, it's over. Wow. So surreal. 

On Wednesday, I graduated with my Education degree at St. Thomas University. It's hard to believe that 5 years has flown by with the blink of an eye. I guess it's true, time truly does fly when you are having a good time. 

St. Thomas University is a beautiful campus! The landscaping and architecture shine in the summer time. So as tradition has it, graduation is normally held outside weather permitting. Unfortunately, my graduation last spring for my Arts degree was held inside because of rain. Still a beautiful ceremony, but having an outdoor graduation is part of STU's charm. With fingers crossed and prayers had, the weather was gorgeous on Wednesday and we got to have our ceremony outside Wednesday evening. The scenery and atmosphere couldn't have been more perfect. 

With family and friends watching, I crossed the stage in front of George Martin Hall with smile in tow and accepted my hard-earned diploma from Dawn Russell. She congratulated me and wished me well, and I left the stage with butterflies in my stomach. Not the kind of butterflies you get when your sad or feel loss, but the kind of butterflies you get before you get on a roller coaster with four loops and you hang with your feet dangling. Butterflies of excitement! 

Thank you to my family and friends for constantly supporting me, encouraging me, loving me, and reminding me that everything gets done. There were difficult times, happy times, and times were I just wanted to give up. Memories were created, best friends were made, and I thanked the stars everyday for granting me this life changing experience.

Goodbye student life, hello adulthood.

Best Friend Adventure.

You know what's great about having a birthday so close to Christmas? You become one of those lucky people in the world who gets to celebrate "Birthmas!" I was born on January 9, 1989. Yes, that makes me 23. Fun fact: I was actually due on December 24, 1988. How great would that have been to have your birthday on Christmas Eve? - NOT! Anyways, the point of this post is not to boast about my birthday, or how old I am. It's to tell you of this awesome adventure I went on this past weekend with my best friend, Sara. 

WAYYY back in October, Sara sent me a link with a message that said something along the lines of: "Have you seen this?!" The "this" was a video trailer for Cirque de Soleil: Michael Jackson "The Immortal" Tour. For those of you who don't know me that well - I LOVE MICHAEL JACKSON! Adore. Admire. Respect. Love. Pure talent. I responded to Sara saying, "I have to see this!!"

Long story short, we did away with getting each other Christmas and Birthday presents this year, and went in on (expensive) tickets to see this show and take a mini vacation together - which we have never done before (unless you count high school band trips, haha!) 

Talk about the best "Birthmas" present ever. Words can not explain the emotions, the joy, and the pure awesome that was this show. Several times throughout I would lean over and say to Sara "I think I'm gonna cry!" or "OH MY GOD, OH MY GOD, OH MY GOD!" I can't pick a favourite performance, they were all my favourite. I found myself dancing in my seat, singing along, crying, and clapping throughout the whole show.

Seeing as this was a Cirque de Soleil show, I went in thinking that it would be full of acrobatics and jaw dropping stunts - which it was. However, what got me even more excited was how close this show was to some of the visions Michael Jackson had for his final tour before passing away. Many of the dance sequences, backdrops, effects, and performances were inspired by the ideas he had for his own show. In all actuality, this is the closest I will ever come to a Michael Jackson performance, and I am beyond excited and thankful for that.

Besides this amazing show we took in on our last day in Montreal, Sara and I did some other fun and exciting things together on our trip. We took in some shopping in the Underground City, went to the Biodome (sans otters, to our disappointment), went up the Olympic Tower, explored Old Montreal, and met up with an old friend, Schyuler! We titled our mini-vacation the "Best Friend Adventure!"

Seeing as I am moving out west in a little less then a month, I am so glad she and I got to do this together. We've never done anything one-on-one like this before, and it really gave me a chance to truly appreciate our friendship like I haven't before and solidify why we're the best of friends. My moving to Calgary will be the first time we haven't lived within 10 minutes of one another - we grew up in the same town and moved to the same city after high school. Change is a scary thing, but everything happens for a reason and I know this move will only make us stronger.