January 2nd, 2016 was a day filled with goodbyes. The fall CPâs who werenât extending had their final day at work, and we were all planning on meeting up at Steak ân Shake late that night for one last night out. I had worked a glow shift that night which was one of my least favorite shifts to work. Essentially a âglow shiftâ is where merchandise Cast Members sell all the light up toys and merchandise later in the night. Animal Kingdom was preparing for their extended hours and wanted to get the feel for how glow merchandise would be sold throughout the park. Itâs a shift without a register, so youâre basically responsible for counting cash and figuring out change in your head. They gave us calculators but they were solar-powered calculators that spent the entire day locked in the dark glow cart, so those were useless. Iâm not a fan of math and while counting change back became increasingly easier for me, I still dreaded the family that bought 3 $12 items and 4 $8 items with a $100.00 bill and demanded change in 5â˛s. When my shift finally ended, Jackie picked me up and we went back to her apartment to kill some time before the final goodbye dinner with everybody.
The clock changed to midnight and January 3rd, 2016 officially began. Jackie and I got to talking in my car and as we talked about saying goodbye the very next day, it quickly became apparent that we didnât want to live without each other. It was definitely much deeper than a friendship by that point - and while everybody else thought we were more than that for months and months, we were completely oblivious. We told everybody we were just best friends, because we were. But there, sitting in my car in the Vista Way parking lot just outside of Jackieâs apartment, we realized they were right. We were much more to each other than just best friends. And there, around the midnight hours of January 3rd, 2016, in the back corner of a college program apartment complex, was where we made our relationship official. I had no idea how the logistics of it all would work out. Jackie was leaving to do her masterâs program several states north of Florida the very next day, and I was staying in Florida to finish my program. Long distance wasnât something either of us wanted to do, but not being together didnât feel like an option. Iâm glad we left our worries to the wind that night and just enjoyed our new found relationship. We hadnât technically been on any dates by that point, but we knew we wanted to be together. The relationship was unconventional by most peopleâs standards, but we didnât care. Iâm so glad that we threw our worries out the window and played it by ear. Logistically, it appeared to be a nightmare but at the time, it was all we wanted. Today, over a year later, weâre still happily together and so thankful for the spontaneity of that night. January 3rd, 2016, was an unforgettable day that changed my life for the better.