Breton Hawkins, 12, explains the importance of being involved in the political process.

Only a few times in your life may you come across an event that truly changes the roots of who you are. It forces you to branch out and think of yourself anew. For me, one of these events took place last month on the journalism trip to Orlando and Disney World, where magic becomes real.

My journey to enlightenment began in the line for Splash Mountain, at the Magic Kingdom Park. As our group was waiting for others to arrive so that we might all ride together, something quickly approached my face in the corner of my eye. My first reaction was that it was some type of predatory bird, like a condor, but admittedly I’m not a bird expert. What it ended up being was a miracle.

What had blown into my face was a leaf. At first, I jokingly packed it into my bag to take home as a souvenir, because it was large leaf, and it had attacked me, something I guess I thought was funny at the time. We found our group and got in line for Splash Mountain. We went through the line, sat in our car, and waited. And waited. Then the attendant approached us and told us the ride had broken down. My first thought was of the leaf. Maybe it was a curse, and I thought that maybe I should abandon it. But I didn’t, and what I thought was a curse was quite the opposite. Shortly after having exited our broken-down ride, an employee approached us and gave us a free Fastpass (essentially a pass to cut in line) for any ride we wanted. This was when the miracles began.

We quickly used our free Fastpass to ride Space Mountain, arguably the best ride at the park, where I got the front seat. After that, it was miracle after miracle. The next thing we did was leave and head to the other park we visited that day, Epcot. Now, from what we had heard, one of the best rides at Epcot is Soarin’, a virtual hang-glider ride. Unfortunately the wait time was 120 minutes. We couldn’t get any more Fastpasses, as we had used them at the previous park. We wanted to get on this ride, so as a last ditch effort we headed over to the Fastpass kiosk. We approached the kiosk, well initially we all approached separate kiosks because we weren’t very smart, but then an attendant came over and ushered us all to one kiosk, and asked us what we needed. We said we wanted to ride Soarin’, so she told us to swipe our cards (these cards held our trip info), so we did. We looked at possible Fastpass times, but there were none for Soarin’. Then, a miracle happened. The attendant asked us if we wanted to ride Soarin’. We of course, said yes. She proceeded to give us 4 Fastpasses to the ride. We were ecstatic, and our disappointment turned into pure excitement as we rushed to our ride. We got in with no problem, and rode what became one of my favorite rides at the park. We were the only group of the journalism kids at Orlando that managed to ride Soarin’. Now in high spirits, we found awesome food, and just hung out for a while, until the group met up for fireworks.

There we all were, on this bridge at Epcot, watching fireworks, when it happened. Now, I will admit, my near constant talk about this leaf and its miracles would probably have been not so funny if I had been the one listening to it all day. I thought it was funny though, so I had kept with it. Sometime during the fireworks, I went back to check my bag, to get my phone, where I had also left the leaf. To my surprise, there was no leaf. I was stumped. I wasn’t sure where it could have gone. I walked back to the group and asked if anyone had moved it, and someone did. He, whom I won’t name (it rhymes with Kyle Sims), had moved the leaf, off the bridge, in a throwing motion, claiming to have seen it go into the water. I wasn’t mad at all, as it had been funny while it lasted (at least I thought so). It was just a leaf, and I had probably been beating the joke dead for around 5 hours, so I got it. We watched the rest of the show, and start to get our stuff back together. As I reached for my bag, I noticed something. There was a leaf, identical to my leaf, right outside the bridge railing, on the little overhang. I grabbed it, and, without a doubt, I knew it was my leaf. The leaf had returned, risen from the waters of Epcot, back to me.

From that point on, we revered the leaf, and it became our sort of lucky token for the rest of our trip. I carried it in my bag wherever we went, and we all benefitted. Other groups we were with got to go to the front of 2 hour lines, some got to sit front for all of their rides. On water rides, no one got wet, shielded by the power of the leaf. Leaf pieces had even somehow shown up in someone’s bed (honestly don’t know anything about that). In a nutshell, the leaf brought us good fortune for the rest of the trip.

Now, to someone reading this blog about how some weird journalism kids worshipped a leaf for three days, I can understand your confusion. But how many times have you ever tried to tell a story you thought was just the greatest thing in your life, for it to fall flat, and you’d have to say, “you had to be there.” I hate those stories, because if you had to be there, why’d you tell me? But those stories, whomever might listen to them, will be the ones you’ll remember experiencing. The inside jokes no one will ever get, the ones that take a blog to explain, those moments between the people you create them with. It might be as non-sensical as a holy leaf, but the little things make those moments and people special.

So in a way, this non-sensical pseudo-religious experience did actually teach me something. The little moments no one will ever understand can define a group, whomever they might be, and will be the moments that stick with us. Those common experiences that no one else can share become the ones we will remember the most when we have left Orlando or high school. So whether it be an inside joke, and object or a goal, cherish those moments that no one could possibly understand, and embrace the strangeness only those close to you will create. I know I will, because I’m a be-leaf-er.