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Megan's Autobiography
CARLY'S RING
One book defines every possible mood for my life, The Princess Bride. This popular movie and less popular novel can relate to any situation, no matter the circumstances. You could flip to any page in the book, and it would cheer you up. I am not the kind of person who writes or annotates books voluntarily, but with this novel, it's different. I recently borrowed it from a friend, because I was not having the best spring break. I opened the book and forgot all of my problems. There was adventure and comedy, and that combination lifted my spirits. The hopes of finding Wesley one day made me smile; a guy who would ''die'' for five years, come back, suffer through the fire swamp, the ROUSes, and ''The Machine'' just to be with the girl he loves is a wonderful thought. I could rename characters in the novel to relate them to my feelings. The lines of dialogue made my spirits soar. There was a group of lines between Humperdinck and Buttercup where she said ''You are a coward who's heart is filled with nothing but fear,'' and although this is an extreme of what I was feeling at the time, I felt better seeing someone else end up alright after it all. The book is nonsense, but complete truth on each of the 300 pages (in the shortened abridged version). It is, and will always be my favorite book. No matter what I'm feeling, I can always be positive of two things. One, true love conquers all in the end, and two, never trust a Sicilian when death is on the line.
I had many friends in eighth grade, or at least a lot for being a new kid. I was on a quest to make more though. When one of my friends, Susan told me they were joining crew, I started trying to get some of my other friends to join with Susan and I. I started the beginning of my 9th grade year and immediately fell in love with the sport. It was amazing. We worked so hard to be ready for spring races, and our work paid off. My “freshie 8” boat was amazing. We won either first or second in every race, we were in. It was so much fun, I never thought anything could be better. Sure, land practice was a pain, and if we were pushed any further it would have killed us, but once we reached water practices, I knew what I was on the team for. The water was gorgeous when we were out rowing, especially on calm days. It was all so peaceful; there was nothing more special.
High school is a time for change. You need to find your place, where you stand, and with whom you fit in. It is sometimes hard to remain on the right path, to be good instead of succumb to pressure from peers and society. I was lucky when I started my 9th grade year, I had friends from the crew team, and they were inviting me to YoungLife. I had no idea what it was, or what I was getting myself into. I don’t see why I came back to club after my first time; I was picked for the first game, cricket spitting. This game consisted of putting a cricket in your mouth and spitting it as far as you could. I lost because there was no way I could spit something alive very far. It started hopping and I just let it fall out of my mouth. It was an interesting evening and most people wouldn’t come back after that, and I don’t know why I did. YoungLife was some sort of magnet, drawing me back over and over again. I went to Saranac that summer; it was a YoungLife camp up in New York State. It was without a doubt the best week of my life. There were surprises, adventures, and opened eyes. One day was spent out on a parasail, hours of my week were spent sitting on a sailboat in the lake talking with my friend Morgan, and tubing. Most of the week is truly indescribable, mainly because you can’t put experiences like it into words. I had gone to church all my life but this one week, spent in the mountains of New York brought me closer to Christ than I had ever been. I had an amazing time with friends, and learned some great things while I was at it. There was not a single person at that camp who didn’t come home happy.
I had the time of my life with all my friends on crew. At the beginning of junior year, I realized my schedule would not work with crew. I couldn’t fit in rowing, homework from 3 AP classes, and all the drama that comes with being on the team. The team is great, but when you’re on it, it is pretty much required to be your life. There’s no way to only compete and have a life completely outside of crew, it is either your life, or you are not a part of it at all. There was no way I could commit all my energy to crew if I was going to be under a lot of stress from school. Although I loved the team and all that came with it, there was no way I was going to completely overwhelm myself with stress. When you spend every moment of the day with a group of high schoolers, there is no way drama wouldn’t begin. There’s always something happening on the team that is a life or death situation, or so it seams. The team is great and all, but it is a walking, rowing, orb of drama. I was so worried I would lose my friends by quitting, but thankfully, that’s not what happened. I may not be as close to my old crew friends, but we’re still friends ad I was also able to be friends with new people.
It seems that a “sweet sixteen” is one of the most important birthdays of a girl’s life. The parties and celebrations are a big deal for many. Mine was not spent with friends, or with balloons surrounding me. I was sick, walking, and on a ferry that would give me one of the greatest stories of my life. I was in Cape Cod with my family, a trip that I had not chosen and was not very excited about, however, once again I spent my birthday away in a random location. We woke up fairly early in the morning, and took a ferry from Hyannis Port to Martha's Vineyard. We looked at all the ''gingerbread houses,’’ saw the oldest carousel, and bought a Little Mermaid cupcake at a local bakery for my birthday. After this tiny break in our day I started to feel sick, so my Dad decided that we should go on a little walk to the Martha's Vineyard Lighthouse; on the map it didn't look too far away and we began walking. Four miles later we finally made it to the lighthouse to find out that it was closed to public, so we began the lovely walk back, which made me feel worse. We got back to the downtown area at about 5 o'clock, just in time to hop in line to get on the ferry home. We stood in line, and after what seemed like an eternity, we reached the front. We were in the front until a woman in around her 60's wearing a long mauve trench coat, and a man in his 40’s with bleach blonde hair drove up in a golf cart and were immediately ushered in front of us. I started whispering to my sister how mad I was, so she in turn told the captain of the ferry it was my birthday as we passed him walking up the stairs to the main deck. I couldn't help but notice the woman in mauve glanced backwards as she heard this, however I was so annoyed that she cut me in line I didn't take much notice at the time. We sat down and my mother turned to us excitedly. She asked my sister, brother, and I if we knew who the woman in mauve was. When we just looked at her blankly, she whispered ''CARLY SIMON.'' My mind started racing, she is the singer of “You're so Vain” which is one of my favorite songs. I started looking around trying to spot her again, however the ferry was large, and I couldn't see her on the main deck. My brother, dad, and I searched around the boat for a while because it’s not everyday you have the chance to meet a famous singer. After a while, we located her and the man (who we believe is her son) on a lower deck. I walked down the stairs, and down the 10-foot aisle that seemed about 2000 feet long. My head was spinning, what was I going to say. “Hi Carly Simon, I’m Megan, will you please sign this hotel notepad we found in my mom’s purse? Also I love you.” I honestly had no idea, and my hands wouldn’t stop shaking. Carly Simon was on the phone but her son was not doing anything, so as she was talking, I went up to her son and asked (with my voice shaking) “Um, is this really Carly Simon? It’s my 16th birthday and I was just wondering if she could sign this for me. If she doesn’t want to I completely understand, I was just wondering…” He cut me off, smiled, and told me she would after she got off the phone with her producer. Finally, she got off the phone and smiled the biggest, toothiest smile I’ve ever seen. I managed to shake out “Miss Simon, it’s my sixteenth birthday and I was wondering if you could possibly sign this for me…” She agreed, and signed in her blue pen “Happy Birthday to Megan, Carly Simon.” Before she handed the autograph back to me, she asked where I was from. I told her Virginia Beach, and she told me she would love to come here one day, but she has not yet. Carly Simon asked me if it was crowded, and I was so nervous I said, “it’s not too bad, only down near 17th street” as if it would mean something to her. She was so kind though and laughed, and then paused and said, “I have a gift for you.” She handed me the autograph and the pen she used to sign it. I was so excited; I had never gotten a pen from someone famous before! I thanked her repeatedly, and then she smiled again and took a peace sign ring off her finger. I was stunned. I stood there for a moment just staring at the ring she was offering to me. I tried it on and it fit perfectly. I just kept thanking her and told her she made my day special. As I walked away, she smiled that huge smile of hers and said “peace and love Megan, peace and love.” I ran up the deck to my mom and reenacted the story about 20 times before we got back onto dry land. I couldn’t stop smiling for the rest of the day. No, I did not have a huge party filled with 50 of my closest friends, I got something better, and a gift and a story no one else has. It was the most amazing birthday I’ve ever had.
I've always wanted to ride a hot air balloon!
