Favorite Places: Home 2.0

Dear Friend,

Welcome to the last installment (for now!) of the "Favorite Places" series! This post is our favorite place on earth together...our school. We aren't going to mention it by name for privacy reasons, but for the sake of this blog, we'll call it Home 2.0.

Headquarters
The library. The library was the first place that Kylie walked into when she visited Forest Ridge as a little fourth grader that felt like a second home. The people that work in the library and fantastic and everything about it is warm and cozy. Many of our friends wonder why we spend all of our free time there, but we wonder why they don't. The library is a perfect place to spend a rainy afternoon. Some of our favorite memories are in the library, whether we are flipping a switch about something that just happened, or frosting and eating a dozen cupcakes as "dinner" before the fifth grade concert at 8:00 pm, and then army crawling across the floor to pretend that we were in a high-stress action film. The name "Headquarters" comes from the fact that if we ever did start up a business similar to the CIA or FBI (but let's be honest, we would be the only two idiots involved), our base area would be the library...

Specific HQ
...Specifically, an office in the library. Our campus minister is probably the #1 most amazing, friendly, funny, musical, and all around legit person. She is one of the main reasons that Home 2.0 is what it is to us. We joke that we live in her office but in a way, we do. We have a "family portrait", and an entire corner of our own that we have decorated. It includes positive quotes, a "rainy day jar" (tbc at a later post), a Buddha statue, our personal tea mugs, a large tea pot, and a variety of teas. We also have our own pillows and blankets in this office. Our day doesn't feel complete without sitting on the white couch in the warm office drinking pomegranate vanilla tea or whatever selection we choose for that day, and just chatting.

Theater
The theater is where Kylie has spend the last two weeks after school, this week until 7:30 and tonight until nearly 11:00. We are both very involved in the theatre department at Home 2.0. During shows (which is basically all year), we live at the theatre. Kylie does every performance  whether acting or teching or stage managing, and Catherine usually chooses one. From the red curtains, to the "never mind about black hats", to the ghost story, the theatre at Home 2.0 is so unique because of all of the memories and stories behind ever costume piece, set piece, and scrape in the floor. There is also a ghost that lives in the theater, Sister Evie. A techie was walking on the catwalk and found a funeral invitation for a "Sister Evie". What else would it be doing up there if her ghost wasn't involved? Hence the story.

When shows are going on, the theatre is a buzz of excitement and it's so hard to describe the feeling. There is something in the atmosphere that just makes everyone happy. Tonight before our last show, the girls in the light/sound booth plugged in youtube videos of Bye Bye Birdie, our last show and we were all belting the words at the top of our lungs. Although shows end and sets are torn down, the memories never go away, nor do the friendships. By the end of senior year, Catherine will have been involved in 5 shows at Home 2.0, and Kylie will have been involved in 17.

Not quite HQ
The is another teacher's office. We don't spend as much time in here as we would, because said teacher is never there. This office is so unique. It is not a novelty to find a bowl of soap and banana peels covered in cellophane to "kill the fruit flies". We have just recently discovered the scarf drawer which we will be using probably more often as the weather gets chillier. This office has the funniest paint job. There are holes in the wall everywhere, and the ceiling has hints of blue from a previous decor choice. We make fun of this office on a regular basis, but we actually really enjoy spending time there. Yet another place that makes campus feel like home.

As you can see, we love everything about our school. We chose to highlight just a few things, but we could go on forever about this amazing place. We joke that we run the whole place, and even teachers assume that we know everything about it (which we basically do). We would be the first ones to notice if a garbage can was moved, or if a small plant was uprooted. Things like this throw our whole days off. We know every single teacher on campus and have a personal relationship with each. We are friends with people across grades. The entire school is such a community. This sounds cliche, but it is the truth. We always feel comfortable and safe at Home 2.0.

We are so blessed to have such an amazing school that we feel comfortable calling home. Unlike some people, we don't dread coming to school. We always arrive early and usually leave later than we have to. We do run the school, even if people tell you otherwise. True fact. Although we are leaving for college in 199 days, we know that Home 2.0 will always be somewhere we can come back to. Actually, we never truly leave, do we? Out hearts will always be tied to this place, and that's an eight year bond that you can never break.

Home is where the heart is...

Yours truly,
Kylie and Catherine