My First

A week before I graduated high school, I made the nine-hour drive down to Disneyland with my senior class in a couple of huge buses. We joined over fifty other high school senior classes in the park from 11 pm - 6 am. It was one of the most enjoyable nights of my entire life. I thought I would be so excited on the way there and on the way home that I wouldn't want to sleep. I slept for most of the two drives.
On countless nights with my best friends, we love to have a sleepover and promise to stay up all night long telling stories and whispering secrets. We surround ourselves with movies, candy, hair dye, and anything else we can think of to make each other laugh. We've made it to the sunrise once or twice, but never without falling silent soon after and silently giving in to our drooping eyes.
Every single year (aside from 2008, spent revolving around hospital trips) on Christmas Eve, as my family drives home from our extended family celebration, I search the night sky for Santa and his sleigh. We always get home, set up the milk and cookies, open our Christmas pajamas to dance around in them for a few minutes, and head off to bed. I always lay in bed, waiting and listening for the sound of my new gifts, willing myself to stay awake, but I have yet to resist the urges to doze off before Santa arrives.
At every Girls' Camp and EFY program I have participated in, it is an unspoken challenge/tradition to stay up all night long on the last night. Many have tried, but few that I know of have endured the whole night. I usually tend to lose consciousness somewhere between the ghost stories, harmless pranks, and mysterious phone calls.
I am sitting on my bed at 3:21 am. My family, whom I have not seen, laughed with, or hugged for 101 long days, are in the air somewhere over Georgia right now. Their plane lands in Orlando in an hour and twenty minutes. I am catching the first possible bus to meet them at Disney's Port Orleans Resort in about two and a half hours. Every time I close my eyes to try and sleep, I picture Tori's teary eyes in front of my face, Isaac's beaming smile, my dad's contagious laugh, and my mom's warm hug. No matter how hard I may try, I have never before experienced excitement to the point where I cannot sleep. It couldn't be done with candy, girlfriends, the thrill of new gifts, energy drinks, or the promise of a fun night. All it takes is me in a quiet, empty apartment, with the full heart and anxious knowledge that I get to see my family in 180 short minutes. Ladies and gentlemen, I am about to accomplish my first all-nighter.