At The Beginning

Firstly, I must apologize for the lateness of this post. I had every intention of writing a post dedicated to my best friend Vicky for her birthday on March 24th, almost two weeks ago. Happy belated Birthday Queen Victoria! I had this idea before Spring Break, when I was going through my music and listened to At The Beginning again. It just brought back so many fond memories of boarding school days and being a teenager: blogging on Xanga, playing Neopets, Habbo Hotel, Mario, rolling down the hill behind the main building, walking to the village just to buy "lesbians" biscuits Leibniz biscuit (Leibniz looks like lesbians), collecting Pringle cans, drinking Qoo. I will never forget those times growing up and going through a period of teenage angst and a pathetic attempt at pseudo rebellion.

I've known Vicky for over a decade now. We met in September 2000 at Hemsted House, Benenden School. We were in the same house, same year, therefore, same dorm room. I still remember the day my parents and I were driving up the road to Benenden. It was a monumental and unforgettable moment, a new change in my life and I knew it was going to be my life for the next seven years. Eleven years have gone by and we're all in different places in the world. We're in our early twenties now! To think I was only eleven when I went to boarding school is still quite hard to imagine. I miss Benenden every single day. I miss my friends and the memories and all the fun, silly activities we did to pass time. I will never forget these treasured moments, because they have made me who I am and my friends make me who I am today.

I'm so thankful to have met Vicky. It has been so amazing to watch her grow up, mature and become the independent woman she is today. I remember how I would use to drag her out of bed in the morning every day! That seems so long ago. Now she's working in Reading and wakes up super early in the morning and she drives (I don't drive)! It just shows how much time has gone by since we left Benenden. I constantly have dreams about Benenden and I can still smell that countryside air, I can hear the sound of the gravel driving up to the main building, these senses and memories will always comfort me and remind me of a simpler time. We use to be obsessed with Cardcaptor Sakura and when we saw this video with the song At the Beginning, it became our friendship song. We would try to play the Chinese version of the opening song on the piano and sing! We were such dorks, but it was so much fun! I still tear a little when I hear this song, which is originally from Anastasia (1997).

I was fortunate enough to go to London for Spring Break last year, so I got to celebrate Vicky's birthday! It had been so long since I spent so much time with her, since she's in London and I'm in San Francisco and our breaks are/were so short when we were both in Hong Kong. It was so nice spending an entire week with Vicky in London! London and Kent will always bring back some great memories and I will always feel the British Pride and Nationality, but I know that I've always wanted to build a life and career in the States. I will never give up my British Nationality, but I hope to attain residency after six years of employment/work visa. I will always remember the night we went to Roadhouse and we were dancing like crazy! I'm just glad I got to celebrate Vicky's 21st birthday with her last year.

I love you so much Vicky. I'm so so so so sorry that this post is so late! I still have to go through my hard drives and post some old photos of us! Please bear with me! For now, enjoy a sneak peek photo of your birthday parcel! I love you! I hope you had a lovely birthday and housewarming party, even though it was almost two weeks ago! xoxo

We were strangers starting out on our journey
Never dreaming what we'd have to go through
Now here we are and I'm suddenly standing
At the beginning with you

No one told me I was going to find you
Unexpected what you did to my heart
When I lost hope you were there to remind me
This is the start

And Life is a road and I want to keep going
Love is a river I want to keep flowing
Life is a road now and forever
A Wonderful journey

I'll be there when the world stops turning
I'll be there when the storm is through
In the end I wanna be standing
At the beginning with you

We were strangers on a crazy adventure
Never dreaming how our dreams would come true
Now here we stand unafraid of the future
At the beginning with you

I knew there was somebody somewhere
Like me alone in the dark
I know that my dream will live on
I've been waiting so long
Nothing's gonna tear us apart

In the end I wanna be standing at the beginning with you