Daes' 1st Writing Assignment

[Daes]

Favorite Childhood Experience

During a cool day in late January, the sun glimmered peacefully as it’s faint golden rays trickled gently through the slow rolling clouds. Class was strangely quiet this early afternoon, deceitfully downplaying the hidden enthusiasm shared amongst a group of young girls. I waited patiently, the grin on my face hardly containable as I waited… as we waited… for the bell to strike. Oh, yes, today was the day and we had endured four long painstaking weeks of patience. Now we were close, so close that our imaginations brought us to snow covered peaks and delicious gooey s’mores and warm sleeping bags.. What time is it?

Who could blame us for our excited anticipation? School was almost over!! Our carpools were waiting, and even the most studious of us girls were checking the clock every other moment, eager to be on the road. Time seemed to slow with each minute, prolonging our anxious glee as our eyes began to lock onto that ticking dial, tension mounting in our muscles as we shifted in our seats until it finally stuck..

The wailing signal echoed through the school hall, our eyes jerking back to our fair skinned teacher, who only watched us all with a calm smile. “You are dismissed.”

“Yes!!” The room filled with cheers as kids scrambled out of their seats and quickly placed them in their proper positions on the tables, bursting out the door we ran to our destination, grins extending cheek to cheek. Our bags had been packed and dropped off the night before, everything was ready, we were ready and our trip was now moments away. My feet carried me swiftly down the crowded halls as I weaved and whirled around my fellow students, barely missing several as my eyes locked over the van that waited, parked on the side of the road. The door was opened, and upon the notion I'd practically leapt into the backseat of the van with a great relieved sigh as though I’d almost thought the week would never come. I landed with a soft thump and shifted comfortably against the cushions. It did not take long for the others to join me, laughing and giggling and conversing about our trip to Lake Arrowhead. Finally the last of my friends took their place besides me, the vehicle rumbling as we began our three-hour long journey.

The van was filled with music and laughter, and me being as shy and quiet as I was, enjoyed the joviality of the moment with a soft smile as I watched the view from the car window, great oaks and pines filled the ravines below, blanketing the ground like an evergreen carpet as we climbed across the side of the mountain.

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There was no snow, that day or the next, no white covered hills as we had envisioned in our minds, only broken logs and leafless trees. Oh, it was only waiting, waiting for our hopes to dwindle that it could start fresh and new. Asleep and warm in our beds, the quiet of the cabin disturbed only by soft breathing, while the floor of the room lay covered with sleeping bags and blankets and pillows, every one of us snug in our own darkened bliss and dreamy worlds. Snow toys, sleds and bogs remained tied and secured, lonely in their lack of use… Even as morning came, most of us remained within our warm lingering slumbers, but even as we clung to it a loud voice broke the silence.

“It’s snowing!!!” There was a moment’s pause, before I shot up from the covers of my sleeping bag, greeted by chilled cool air that send a slight tremble over my body, “it’s snowing?” I repeated. Girls by now had jerked up from their cozy beds, murmurs rose into laughter, the laughter into cheers as one by one every girl that had been sleeping moments before now rushed to their feet in their pajamas to have their own look through the window. “It is snowing!!” Everyone made haste to get dressed, even myself, and like myself- most of the girls were changing in their sleeping bags, too anxious to wait for their chance to change in the washroom.

The snow had piled up several inches overnight, and everyone hurried outside to greet the welcoming cold. Trees were flecked with dabs of white, the skies themselves grey and cool, eager footsteps left fresh imprints in the white shavings, and the sheer pure bliss of it all was enough to make one feel more than just elated as I stood out on the deck watching all the girls look around in wonder, our so-cal days didn’t allow for snow, and it was indeed a moment to remember. It was just “Simply amazing.”