I woke up on the last Saturday of September. It was one of those Saturday mornings, you know? One of those Saturday mornings when life seems to be replaying the same scenes from an old over-watched, over-rented, overrated 80’s movie, like Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, and nothing seems to be going the way you planned because the excitement you expected to come eventually dwindled down and died before it reached your door. Life was uninteresting -- and that sucked -- because the only companion I had was homework, and it wasn’t very compassionate, unlike my real friends who actually had lives while I sat cooped up in a jail of calculations, endoplasmic reticula, and vocabulary. I contemplated just leaving these drudgeries out as a chew toy for the dogs, throwing them out the window, burning them with last year’s newspapers, and just going out to explore the world on the last Saturday of September. It wasn't as if I would be home late, or I wouldn’t do my homework, I thought, and it was Saturday for crying out loud - I was entitled to a break! What about Sunday? I mean, surely I could do my homework then, right? And so, I did. I put my homework down, and I unchained myself to step out into the orange world of the last Saturday of September.
Several hours later, the night was cold and orange, like the day had been, and I found myself wrapped in tribal blankets, huddling beside a blazing fire pit with a mug of hot chocolate in one hand and a slightly singed s’more in the other. My friends’ laughter wrapped around my ears and filled the frosty air with hilarity as the sunset made itself barely distinguishable through the amber butterscotch leaves of the close-knit forest.
“Hey Soph,” the soft, masculine voice of my friend, Michael, called out. “We’re playing Ultimate Frisbee - come join us.” He motioned me over with a wave of his arm and jogged off onto the open prairie of the Country Club’s golf course.
Swarms of butterflies attacked my gut as I answered with a feeble “Yeah, I’m coming.” I put down my hot drink and grabbed my friend Ellen before heading over to the diverse cluster of players.
“Well, this seems like it’s gonna be an interesting game,” I said, raising my eyebrows and scrutinizing the outnumbered team.
Ally chuckled and bent down to tie her Sperry laces tighter. “It should be fun. Let’s split up and be on different teams!” She grinned and ran off to join the team on top of the hill.
“Okay well bye, just leave me here all alone!” I yelled out flailing my arms in disarray.
Michael laughed at me: “Soph, you’re playing on our team since we need more players.”
I nodded and ambled over as the anticipation and anxiousness of being with people threatened to engulf me. “Guys, I’ve never played this game before, so don’t expect anything spectacular from me!” I laughed, bubbling with nerves and hot chocolate.
Michael chortled and sauntered over as if he owned the place, saying, “Don’t worry about it. Just keep your eyes on the Frisbee and pass it to someone on our team if you catch it. All will be well.”
My eyes involuntarily rolled as my lip curled up into a sarcastic pucker at his ‘matter-of-fact’ tone. “Ha, yah, that’s implying I actually catch it in the first place!”
He scoffed. “Just run around and pretend like you’re doing something important then. The game’s starting! Spread out team!”

I just stood there and stared dumbfounded. Well this really was going to be fascinating, I thought as the Frisbee flew over my head and two guys collided and wrestled midair to catch it.

Several grass stains, bruises, and name-callings later, we retreated to the shelter of the bonfire again. The night was still beautiful and smelled of damp decaying leaves and wood. I was content and felt very snug wrapped in my blanket of friends. I looked around the foreign backyard, sighed, and leaned deeper into the comfy swing chair I was sharing with Ally. Life could not get any better! The radio hummed some old country highway song, and the guys made fools of themselves impersonating 4 Non Blonde’s “What’s Up?” The atmosphere of the party was so tranquil and so trouble-free that I felt like I could be myself around my friends. The night went by slowly and the toasty fire warmed me up to the possibility of discovering a new world. Later that evening, we moon-gazed on a golf course and jumped on an unfenced trampoline. I discovered that it actually was possible to squish six people onto a loveseat and make fun of popular and glorified boy bands. It was a night like no other; it was a Saturday like no other, and my mom was going to be so indefinitely mad. But hey, looking back I’m not going to say it wasn’t worth it, because it so definitely was. It was bliss, it was jam on warm buttery toast, it was Vivaldi’s Concerto No. 10 for 4-violins in B minor, it was the grand finale of a circus act, it was perfection, and it was all mine; it was all my creation. For the first time, my life was what I wanted it to be. I finally had dictated my time, how I had spent it, where I had spent it, and with whom I had spent it.
That evening had opened up a new life and created a new me; no longer was I an awkward shy girl, but a girl who was comfortable around people - someone that I hadn’t been, ever. It was a given that sharing quality time with people of my own age beat sharing it with my uncompassionate homework. I still cannot understand why I had never actually hung out with friends like that before, and now, looking back, I realize that it’s okay to give yourself a break and be footloose. Those mornings that replay mind-numbing monotonous monologues do not have to exist if you revolutionize them. The broken pebble road doesn’t lead you to dullness and redundancy; it doesn’t jail you and coop you up like poultry, unaware of your surroundings with no means to change them. This road can lead you to where you point it. You can paint it platinum, silver, or gold. I heard someone wise once say that your destiny is not what you wish it to be, but what you make it to be. My night out proved that I can change my life and can be changed by it; I do not have to conform to never-ending-mind-numbing days and live the last September days as a prisoner of boredom. I am free with my Frisbees, fires, and friends.