HUMOR WINNER - VISIONS OF GRANDEUR AWARDS 2024
|| FEATURED x2 || [ONGOING]
Studious Cora Turwal is at her aunt's for a small stay this summer. She needs this vacation...even though she might just spend half of it studying anyway. When she...
THAT NIGHT was a relaxing one. We had dinner inside, in the hotel's attached restaurant which had huge glass windows around the sides so that the mountain range in the distance was visible. It was so pretty, and having good food made the experience exponentially better.
Even though Finn started to subtly mimic everything I was doing— if I took a sip of water, he took a sip of his; if I adjusted my napkin, he did too—until I caught on and glared at him (to which he just grinned, of course). He's so immature.
Afterwards, in our room, Jolene and I stayed up all night talking about our favourite fandoms and our wildest ships between fictional characters. We couldn't stop giggling over the strangest pop culture things out there, and I'd come to find out that apparently, anime p○rn exists? Um, excuse me, what?!
The internet is a wild, wild place.
Then Jolene shared some stories from her strangest dates, while I entertained with stories of my long-distance, unrequited crushes. The whole ordeal, a girly exchange of high-school-sleepover-worth material, made me happy in ways I couldn't describe. It had been a while since I'd talked like this with a friend, and I realized I needed more of this in my life.
Like, a lot more.
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The next day was the start of another hike to another resort. We had a breakfast of tasty cornmeal porridge at the hotel before we packed our things and left.
The trek to the next resort took a couple of days. We camped out at night after each day of tiresome and backbreaking but super fun and wholesome hiking. The forests held twisting trails that, with each turn, seemed to reveal new layers of green as if we were peeling back the Earth's secrets. The sun penetrated these parts of the town, shining effortlessly through the thick canopies as it turned the ground into a quilt of dappled shadows.
What stuck with me the most was the peacefulness of it all (yes, I even got used to Priscilla's chatter about her favourite eco-friendly nail polish brands; miracles do happen, apparently). There was something so calming about being out here, away from the noise and the rush of everyday life. Just us, the forest, and our path ahead.
What surprised me the most was that all ten of us were in perfect sync with each other and the pace of the trek. Someone would start a wild story of theirs, and another would relate, and someone else would comment something so wildly out of place but just so right— it was indescribably sweet. They felt like... family.
Finally, we arrived at the resort, which was a very ancient one. It was used for guests to stay back in the days when people came from other lands to trade goods. I couldn't stop taking pictures (Renzo practically had to drag me back), it was so interesting.
"Alright folks," Yumi started as we assembled around her, excited. "Today, we will be sleeping outside, but not in our itty-bitty tents. We, my friends, are going to see the stars."
