A Dream

A Dream

 

I’d always wanted to go to New York, ever since I could remember, growing up watching all those romantic movies set in the city that never sleeps.

I wanted to be like Carrie Bradshaw, go to New York to write, sit on the Met steps like Blair and Serena in Gossip Girl, walk in Central Park, catch a cab at dawn to 5th Avenue and peer into the window of Tiffany’s with a coffee and Danish like Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany’s.

This trip I’d thought about for ages, a dream I thought Id never share, that was until I met Lucy.

I remember the night before my induction day at Canterbury College, I’d had a dream that I'd meet a girl called Lucy, a girl I knew I would become really great friends with. Like dejavu, it happened.

I was so nervous on my first day of college, having to take that big step from leaving the familiarity and security of school, to go to a place I'd never been before. As I awoke that morning a rush of nerves and excitement filled my belly. The initial feeling of not knowing what to expect, all these questions running through my head. Would the teachers like me? Would I make friends? Would I settle in? Have I made the right decision? All these worries seemed perfectly natural at the time, but looking back now seem rather silly.

We all gathered at the entrance, each class getting called one by one. I looked around noticing different people, all of different ages.

Finally, after ten minutes of waiting, my class was called, Media Production. I stood up and began walking to where we were being led.

I walked next to a small girl, 5`3 with blonde hair to her shoulders. She wore a pink skirt, a white sun top, a pink hoodie and pink dolly shoes. She looked about fourteen, but I found out later she was actually nineteen. I knew immediately we would become great friends, her name, Lucy.

Dejavu I thought. I later told Lucy about my dream, she laughed, agreeing that it was indeed dejavu.

Throughout our two years together I found out that we shared a lot in common, including our love of romantic movies, which we saw quite a few of over the two years, taking trips to the cinema each month to see the latest romantic movies, our love for American television shows like Glee and Gossip Girl, which I got her into and the love for West End shows such as Wicked, which we made sure we went to see before we went our separate ways. Aswell as our love for Friends, a television show, that we found ourselves quoting in our everyday lives and also the love for anything Paris and New York related.

We made a pact that once we had the money and finished our studies, that we would meet up and fulfil our dream, spending two amazing weeks in New York, the city that never sleeps.

And that was exactly what we were going to do.

Over our five years of being separated, Lucy at Brunel University in London studying Film and Television,  myself still at Canterbury College studying for my A-Levels in Media, English and Law and then on to Southampton Solent University studying Magazine Journalism. We kept in contact, meeting up five times a year, texting each other often to see how the other was getting on. The dream slowly creeping to the front of our minds.

This was it, we had finally finished our studies, Lucy and me now qualified in our chosen industries, ready to begin our careers. But first taking a well deserved break to relax and properly catch up and fulfil our dream. Our dream of going to New York, sitting on the Met like Blair and Serena, walking in Central Park, shopping in the likes of Gucci and Chanel, going to the top of the Empire State Building, seeing all the Broadway shows, everything all lit up at night.

When we boarded the Virgin Atlantic airplane, we could barely contain our excitement, only a nine hour flight and the Atlantic Ocean separated us from our beloved New York, a dream of both of ours since we were young. These were going to be the best two weeks ever, in one of the most beautiful cities in the world with one of my best friends. It couldn’t get much better than this, could it?