“Mom I can’t do this anymore, we need to move, transfer, I don’t know, something. Anywhere but here,” I blurted as I jumped into the passenger seat of my mom’s white Jeep after sprinting from school. My mom gave me that “relax honey, I’ll talk to you when you cool down” sort of look, but this time there was no cooling down. School had been rough lately. Nothing but stress, stress, and more stress. I absolutely hated the environment, my friendships, and all the “girl friend group drama” which had been eating me alive. Naturally, I’ve always been a quite dramatic person, but lately I could only see nothing but a negative outcome out of anything. The best-case scenario that attracted me most was just to leave. If I moved away none of this drama and the overwhelming idea to keep up my “cool” reputation would matter anymore. A fresh start with new people is what I so badly needed.

“Look Lina if that’s really what you want, I’ll start looking for new schools, but these stupid obstacles aren’t as bad as you think, trust me…” my mom lectured. I was sick of the “yeah things will get better”, but I just felt like I had no real connections with anyone at school. I just cared too much about what my peers thought of me, it had been driving me insane. No one, not even my mom would understand how I was feeling.

“Alright Mom,” I muttered.

“Now go upstairs, fix yourself up a bit, and get some money, isn’t Demi coming to pick you up soon?” Mom replied. Shoot. I completely forgot about that. My family friend and I had made plans to meet up today, as she had just moved from Florida back up to stay with her grandma (who I call my Aunt Denise) here in New Jersey, and she needed some company while she was here for school. Demi was her name, and I had gotten one of those awkward: “Hey when are you free, it’d be rad if we could hang and chat soon!” texts last week from her. We weren’t exactly close, but I guess you could say we were supposed to be “close” by default since my mom and Demi’s grandma were best friends. And yes. She did use the word “rad”… my first weird turn off from this situation. I didn’t feel like entertaining her. I hadn’t seen Demi since I was around 6 years old, and her being 9 years old, as she was three years older than me. Now we were older and she reached out to me for this meet up since she had come back from Florida for a bit, but with my foul mood, she was the last person I felt like seeing.
Unwillingly, I went upstairs to grab a 20-dollar bill as I presumed we would go for lunch. Just as I had put the twenty in my pocket my phone vibrated. I looked down to check, and sure enough a: “Hey girly I’m here!” text from Demi shone up on the screen of my phone. I walked back downstairs shouted, “Bye Ma see you later,” behind my shoulder and opened the front door to reveal a bright red Audi convertible sitting there in my driveway. I watched as the driver’s door opened and out came Demi, who I hadn’t seen in about 10 years, run around to embrace me in a warm hug hello.

She was not what I had expected at all. Demi was about 5 feet tall, so I felt as if I towered over her. She wore baggy ripped boyfriend jeans with some kind of odd flowery detail on it. A matching denim jacket covered with strange, and very colorful beaded embroideries and intricately sown patches all over it. She wore bright red converse and a button down green and red flannel under her jacket. Her fingers were covered with rings, and her neck was draped with different layers of necklaces. These necklaces ranged from a shark tooth one, to one made of seashells, and different kinds of silver charmed necklaces which all layered on top of one another. Her roots were as brown as my chocolate hair color, while the rest of her hair was a very light blonde, definitely self-bleached done probably in her own bathroom at home.

“Hello my angel! You’re so beautiful! It’s so amazing to see you; I sense such amazing vibes from you already! I have such amazing energy right now, we are going to have so much fun today!” she beamed. Oh wow. I was sort of just standing there trying to cover the fact that I couldn’t stop staring at her entire get-up here. As I gave my self a few more looks at her, as we started some initial small talk outside her car, I noticed about 4 tattoos on her body already. Geez. She was 19 years old, a little young for that stuff in my opinion… but I mean I guess who am I to judge her own style, right?

“Come inside the car hun! Do you know of any good vegan restaurants nearby?” she asked. I got into her car that was actually quite cozy, even though the door screeched as I opened it, clearly indicating this car had seen its day, and as I closed the door I was greeted with an extremely powerful scent. It was like coconuts and pineapples and strawberries all in one, and it was just completely nauseating. I literally couldn’t even see the smell was just so much. I hated it. Her dashboard had a little Buddha sitting atop of it, and hanging from her front mirror was a little tag that read: “Good Vibes Only” and a circle that read: “MR. ZOG’S SEX WAX” dangling above the mirror.

“What’s all this?” I said, motioning to the “sex wax”.
“I got it at a surf shop near my house in Boca. It’s a car freshener. This one is coconut and I just had a strawberry one. I literally love them, it makes me feel like I’m out an island every time I take a drive,” she replied. So that explains the crazy scent. She looked down at her phone and her face seemed to light up.
“Oh my gosh! There’s a thrift shop right near this vegan café in Ramsey, do you mind if we go?” she asked.
“Sure let’s do it,” I said hesitantly. What does one even order when going to lunch with a vegan? I guess I’ll just have to go with it. As we drove on, we talked about just little things, like: how’s the family? How’s school? What are your hobbies? The general things like that. But as we kept going, I got to learn that she moved up for beauty school, as she had just graduated college in May, and being that it’s September she is going to go to beauty school in order to get her certification to do skin care and makeup since she was confident that it was her calling. I told her some stuff about me, but still keeping my guard up a bit, she was pretty weird. If I were to describe her with just one word it would be: hippie. Absolute hippie. Peace signs and all that jazz that everywhere. I mean she even had a tattoo of a peace sign.

“I am hoping to get a reiki certification to teach, as well as a yoga and meditation teacher certification, I mediate everyday, it’s so good for you,” she told me.
“What exactly is reiki?” I asked.
“Oh Lina it’s amazing. Basically it opens up all your chakras, and transfers the negative energy inside of you out, and circles in all positive vibes, it really keeps me grounded and centered. I couldn’t have gone through some of my hardest points without going to reiki every week,” Demi said. This interested me a bit.

“And you believe in all that? This whole ‘transfer of energy and vibes’ stuff? The whole Buddha and meditation ideas?” I tested as we parked and got out of the car. We walked into the vegan place, and paused the conversation for a bit to get ourselves seated and situated. It smelt like straight herbs. The hostess sat us down and gave us menus. Demi ordered tofu and vegetables while I order a “fake chicken” wrap with a banana smoothie.

“Of course. Things like this have changed my life. Lina, I feel a bit of a dark vibe with you. Is everything alright? I almost feel like you’re a bit stressed or on edge, and I don’t wanna push you or anything but just know I’m like a big sister. We are basically family, and I know how tough high school can be so if you need to vent please go for it!” Demi said. It was almost a little creepy that she could sense how I was feeling a bit down. I barely saw her, so how would she know if I was feeling off lately from everything? Should I just let it all out? I probably won’t be seeing her anytime soon so what’s the point of holding it all back?

“Well if I’m gonna be honest here, school is rough. Friends and drama and everything have been so draining. I’m honestly emotionally exhausted. Like I HAVE to tell you a story about this girl who has been saying…” and I went off. I don’t even know why. But she was right. It was so good to really let it all out. Even the smallest issues. And for some odd reason, I felt so comfortable telling her all of it. She was an outside perspective and it was all super chill. She was really listening, and she truly cared. Everything I said she acknowledged with some sort of helpful feedback or advice. As much of a hippie as she was, she just made me feel so calm. We sat there for about an hour and a half just talking about everything and anything on my mind.

“Do you know about the Law of Attraction?” Demi said, as we paid at the front counter and headed back to the car.
“Not really, what do you mean by that?” I asked her. We opened her car door and there was the whiff of the Mr. Zog’s sex wax, so prominently making its scent a presence of its own. I didn’t mind it as much, but it was still extremely overpowering.
“Basically if you focus on positivity, positive things will come to you. Whatever you put out into this world comes back to you. What you give, is what comes back. I want you to think about the sort of energy you release, because whether you realize it or not, that is what the universe gives back to you. You need to just stop trying to control everything in your life, and let go. Don’t worry about the what-ifs, just be your best self and the best things are bound to come to you. It’s all about manifesting your own reality, baby!” Demi explained.
“What does that even mean... What is ‘manifesting?’” I asked her.
“Why don’t I show you,” Demi replied. I didn’t even notice how long the car ride was, as we got off topic and were, as Demi would say, “vibing out”, together. I realized as she was driving and nearing the destination that we were no longer going to the thrift store but we were pulling up a very scenic route. She finally stopped the car when we reached the top of a mountain, overlooking the skyline of New York City. The sun was so pleasantly setting on the horizon line, and it made it all so beautiful. We got out of the car, when I then noticed Demi sit down in the grass, facing the view, and sitting into a “criss cross apple sauce” position. She tapped her hand on the ground next to her, and motioned with her index finger (with the tattoo of an ocean wave across the side of it), for me to come sit beside her.
“Close your eyes and put yourself where you want to be. Think of your goals and aspirations. See yourself there. Feel your mind creating your own reality,” she whispered. “I am older and I have retired from years of giving facials and working in the beauty business. I am now retired on the beach in Hawaii with my husband in our own treehouse,” she said. I was laughing. I actually was laughing so hard.
“Demi what? What are you saying?” I chuckled.
“You have to believe it, and anything will happen. What do you want?” Demi asked.
“Well… uh… I want to pass my chemistry test on Monday,” I said.
“Okay, now manifest it! See yourself passing that test, and tell the universe to manifest that as it will make itself into your reality!” Demi said.
“Please help me not fail my test on Monday,” I spit out, reluctantly.
“NO! The universe only heard ‘fail’. You can’t even mention a negative word. You have to be confident in this, say it like you mean it, and positively!” Demi exclaimed.
“I will pass and get an A on my chemistry test on Monday,” I said. Demi looked at me with a wide smile.

“Exactly! You should listen to Modsun on Spotify. He has amazing meditative podcasts about how he created his own reality. They’re all about how perspective is so important and the way you see things and the way you react to them, can change how you live. It’s all about your way of thinking of your hardships, and knowing that you can either choose to deal with them in a negative light, or welcome them and know that life wouldn’t give you anything you couldn’t handle!” Demi lectured. She seriously was so spiritual. I felt so safe around her. I felt so in control of my emotions, like everything is ought to be great, and that it was up to me to make my life the way I want to live it. I felt so empowered.

Demi took me home after more meditations and deep talks and lessons up on that mountain overlooking the picturesque view. We texted non-stop that whole week and hung out the following Saturday again. I wound up seeing a bit of her in my own self, and it actually made me proud. I read her book suggestions, and we even would occasionally send each other articles about happiness and how to live our best lives. She called me her soul sister, as she thought that each of the lessons she taught me were ones she learned herself, and even though she guided me through my own, she wanted to leave me to experience lessons on my own. She thought making mistakes were the best way to gain wisdom.

As months went on, we became so close. She made me realize my teenage girl high school issues were overall irrelevant, and that they weren’t worth the stress and headaches. Running away from problems was never a good solution. I actually wound up getting a job at a yoga place in town as the receptionist, Demi was pleased to hear that. We would see each other almost every other weekend, and each weekend I looked forward to getting into her bright red car and smelling that comforting scent of that “Mr. Zog’s sexwax”. The smell was so relaxing and it made me feel as if her and me were right at home, by each other’s sides. We went on so many adventures, whether it was to the mall, down the shore on a winter day, trips to the library, or even to some creepy thrift stores for Demi to find more clothing pieces that she saw as her “hidden gems”, which were perfect opportunities to start her own kinds of trends. 

Demi eventually graduated in the beginning of May, and soon after she then left to go back to her home in Florida. I was definitely sad, yet I knew she went back and found more opportunities to spread her love to others and manifest new destinies. Even without Demi around now, we text often, as she always sends me little spiritual reminders about how everyday should be lived as a great one. Even though she’s in a different state, Demi is still in Jersey with me as her mantras and mottos stay with me here, while I try to spread the light she taught me to people in my own life. I will admit that I miss that coconut strawberry mix of the Mr. Zog’s sex wax, and I’m definitely looking forward to visiting her so I can get back into her hot red convertible, and breathe in that amazing scent again soon.