an accidental vacation..

I always try to find the humor in a situation. I handle things better when people are laughing. My whole family uses humor to defuse a problem. I watch more college basketball, major league baseball, and Chicago Bears games than most girls. I can hold my own with the boys. I use foul language and I know how to change my own tire.

But ask around and you'll find out, I can be an emotional mess. Truly. No one holds a candle to me when it comes to bursting into tears for no reason. I rock that shit.

I'm telling you all of that to tell you this.. I took a trip down memory lane yesterday. Purely by accident, but I got a good cry out of it and I feel like sharing it with you.

It all involves One Tree Hill.

Not a lot of people can say what I'm about to say.. I watched One Tree Hill from the first episode of Season 1. It was 2003 and I was in junior high. My mom and I watched that channel for another tv show and there had been tons of previews leading up to the Pilot episode. So I knew about it and made sure I was home to watch that first episode. I was hooked from that moment on.

My sister used to make fun of me for watching it, but by around Season 4, I had her hooked too. Then I slowly got my friends hooked and before you know it, we would all call each other or text each other during episodes. We had One Tree Hill parties. I can tell you everything about every episode. I know more about P. Sawyer and B. Davis and Haley James Scott than you'll ever want to know. Lucas and Nathan were my boyfriends. I felt connected to them.

I don't know what it is about OTH. I think a big reason I have such an emotional connection to it is because it was a constant in my life through those rocky junior high years and emotional and crazy high school years, even into my college years.

This sounds crazy because it is. To have such an emotional tie to a television program? I'm nuts...

Or am I?

The summer after I graduated high school and I was about to start my freshman year in the dorm at IU, the floor I was going to live on started a Facebook group. So of course I did what any normal, sane person would do.. I clicked on everyone who was in the group and checked out their Facebooks. Duh. Well, one of the girls who was going to be on my floor had on her Facebook that she loved One Tree Hill. So I casually sent her a Facebook message about that and we talked a little while about One Tree Hill and IU and our majors. We found out we were only a couple rooms away from each other on our floor and we made plans to meet after we moved in, then we'd watch the season premiere together. And that started a friendship. I later lived in an apartment with that same girl our Sophomore year at IU. We aren't as close as we used to be, but we're still friends and we still talk regularly.

I'm telling you all of that to tell you this..

I made the bright dumb decision to watch the final episode of One Tree Hill the yesterday.. while I was at work.

This ended as you'd expect.. with me crying like a baby while my coworkers looked at me with concern in their eyes, silently wondering if they should get me a tissue or take me out back to put me out of my misery. Lovely. Anyway, I posted this quote from that episode onto my Facebook..

"It's the oldest story in the world. One day you're 17 and planning for someday, and then quietly and without you ever really noticing, someday is today. And then someday is yesterday, and this is your life.." 

And wouldn't you know who liked it first? The girl I met 5 years ago because of One Tree Hill. I immediately texted her and we talked about it for a while. I shed a few more tears and that was that. 

Or was it?

Back in Kindergarten, I met this girl and we were best friends. In fact, we were best friends for 13 years. Not without our share of ups and downs, let me tell you, but we were close. In high school we added some other people and at one point we became this really close clique. 2 of the girls and I were so incredibly close. They ended up living together at IU our Freshman year. In a different dorm than me. Which I was totally fine with by the way, because by then, things were already a little rocky. (aka they didn't want me to have any other friends besides them and i wasn't following those rules very well)

That year I watched the One Tree Hill premiere with my new dorm friend, but my 2 other friends always wanted me to go to their dorm to watch the other OTH episodes. My dorm friend didn't care, so I always ended up watching with the other girls. Towards the end of 1st semester, I ditched the other girls one night and ended up watching OTH with my dorm friend. This caused one of the biggest blow ups in history and I'm still not on any kind of good terms with the girl I was friends with for 13 years. 

The other girl (the blonde one in the photos above) and I made up eventually, a year or 2 ago. And wouldn't you know it.. She commented on my One Tree Hill status. 

And this is where my accidental vacation down memory lane took place. I'm sitting there looking at my Facebook and I realize how many memories are connected and attached to this tv show. It's honestly almost insane. A friendship lost and another gained seemingly through OTH. 

Logically, I know One Tree Hill had nothing to do with any of the events of my Freshman year. But the memories of that are connected through that show. 

Have you ever been at the mall, in a crowd, and you smell a perfume. 
It's the same perfume your grandma used to wear. 
Instantly your mind makes you think of her.
Before you know it you're thinking of a specific memory of her.
And you can remember exactly how you felt in that memory with her.
All because you smelled her perfume.

That's the best way I know how to describe what One Tree Hill does to me. You have memories of your grandma attached to that perfume smell. I have memories attached to One Tree Hill. Lots of them. Some good and some not so good. I remember every tear I cried, every angry word said, every comforting hug, and every laugh.

This was a long post. A long and pointless one, but I needed to share it. I forgot to mention at the top that sometimes I know how to be selfish. I selfishly needed to get this all out so I can go back to work.

A vacation down Memory Lane really messes with a girl.. and I'm ready to go back home.