By Ana Seidler, Grade 12
Moving from town to town, and house to house every few years broadened the group of
people I spend time with dramatically. However, there was one friend who was with me from the
beginning, and despite two changes to schools and two separate house moves, we stayed as close
as sisters. Juliette. Through preschool and elementary school, we were together, and every time
we hung out, we watched the same show: Survivor. Even when I switched to private school in
middle school, there was practically no change to how much we saw one another, or how much
we watched it.
The swim team certainly added to our friendship. Similar to our friendship, swimming
was also there from the beginning. We swam on the summer team from the minute we learned
how to doggy paddle, never missing a practice. When we were six, we both decided to join the
winter travel team. At that time, every day without fail was with Juliette. School, then practice,
and then a sleepover at one of our houses, where we inevitably watched Survivor. Swimming
heavily impacted our friendship, and even once we grew to dislike the sport years down the road,
we both still did it just so that we could see each other daily.
Eventually, our friendship grew into more of a sister relationship. Juliette and I fought
constantly, and then would make up in 20 minutes. I cannot even count the number of times her
mom had to break up a fight between us. A vivid memory I have of one of our fights is when I
burned pancakes. We would make a ton of food and binge watch entire seasons in one night. This
particular night, we chose to make pancakes, which I unfortunately (slightly) burnt. Juliette lost
her mind. Her brothers were with us cooking too, and watched as we began to fight over whether
or not they were edible. It eventually escalated, and I was being chased outside by Jules,trying to
avoid the knives that she was throwing at me from the box in her hand.
Birthdays and holidays were spent with Juliette; whether it was going to Kalahari or to
Florida. Each trip had their own unique fights and issues, but our constant was that stupid show
that had us absolutely hooked. We even managed to convince the lifeguard running the station at
the beach to turn the finale on for season 37 because we absolutely could not miss it, even on
vacation.
When I moved from Rhinebeck to Poughkeepsie, and switched swim teams, we never
saw each other anymore. We would text off and on, every few weeks, but it wasn’t the same as it
used to be. It was different when I just moved schools, because now I was 40 minutes away with
no drivers license to go see her. Yet we would still update each other when something big
happened on the new season of Survivor, like when a contestant was sued for exposing the show
before it aired, banning him from the live reunion that we watch together every year.
When we finally got our licenses, our routine was renewed, and we found ourselves
going to the gym together, grabbing something to eat, and then at each other’s homes every
night, watching Survivor, and having the best time; even though I would have to wake up at five
the next morning to make it to school.
So, when the time for prom came around, it was obvious that I had to find a way to bring
her, and she had to find a way to bring me. Hers was first, and a lot easier to get into. It was
Memorial Day weekend, and me, Jules, and our other friend Bella went up to my condo in
Saratoga following the prom afterparty. We saw Jason Aldean in concert, went out on my boat,
and had a blast shopping and going out. Surprisingly, we only fought twice. At the end of each
night, an old season of Survivor or a Survivor reunion was on in the background.
Then came Lourdes prom, two weeks later. We missed the deadline for the paperwork, so
I had to bribe a friend of mine to get her a ticket and sign off, but somehow we were able to get
her to prom. We had a great time, went out after, and then all of our friends came back to my
house. Everyone was in for the night, so we chose to watch the Live Survivor Reunion streaming
downstairs.
The next several days were spent together, driving around, meeting new faces, and
enjoying our early summer sun to its fullest. There definitely were a few hiccups on the road
there- I crashed my car into a telephone pole the night following Lourdes prom. It was dark out,
and around midnight. I had been doing car karaoke with her and our friend Bella, and when
making a turn I mistakenly hit the gas rather than the brake. Thankfully, only my car (Lolita) was
hurt, but the panic that it caused was widespread. All three of our Life360 trackers were going
off with their crash detectors, notifying our families. Additionally, I had to figure out a way to
get my car off of a ledge, as it was slightly pushed off to the side of a small, water-filled ditch.
Somehow, with Juliette’s help, I was able to get the car back onto land completely, and
drive back as if nothing happened. Unlucky me, not only did the tracker’s crash system go off,
but also every single engine light was, as well. I parked it, broke the news to her parents, and
then to my father. Needless to say, I did not sleep over Jules’ house the following night. What did
we do? Watched the finale of Survivor Season 49 on a facetime call so that we would be able to
react together.
As per usual, Juliette and I spent the entire summer together, practically non-stop, as if
nothing had happened or changed throughout the years. We still saw one another the same as we
did fifteen years ago in preschool. From here on out though, everything was done with purpose.
We knew that our time left together was very limited, so we began to spend it more wisely.
My family owns a boat, which we keep on Saratoga Lake. One the speedboat you can
tube, waterski, wakeboard, surf, tan, pretty much any kind of activity. We got a new boat this
past summer, and we were all very excited to use it, Jules included. She couldn’t wait to try the
tubing, since it would be faster than usual; and I could not wait to try the wakeboarding, which
would be smoother. When we finally got on the boat, we immediately tried everything. My dad
was speeding so much that Juliette could barely hold on to the tube, and was completely in the
air, twisting and turning all different directions.
We both came home from that boat trip with some serious rope burns; but I will never
forget how fun it was, even when we tried the fishing trick that was shown on season 26 of
Survivor (Bare handed) and Juliette actually managed to catch a huge bass. Although, it slipped
out of her hand right after the picture was taken.
The time of summer passed and fall began to creep in. The leaves turned and the wind
grew more piercing, and suddenly, we were seniors. Two different schools, two different houses,
two different towns. Yet, we were still meeting up every weekend, going on side quests, and
causing issues everywhere we went.
College tours came quickly, and soon enough Juliette and I were headed to Florida to see
where we would end up. We toured University of Central Florida, Florida Atlantic, Florida Gulf
Coast, and University of Tampa. While I loved them all, Florida Atlantic stuck to me, and I
eventually committed to school there.
Juliette continued to tour schools and had no luck. Until eventually, we went to West
Virginia. A great thing about the hotels in Virginia, is that they have Survivor on channel 67, on
repeat. Non-stop, old seasons of Survivor, the prime seasons.
It was kind of a full circle moment. Because, at that moment, while watching survivor
and east tons of food as per usual, in a crummy hotel room; Jules committed to college at West
Virginia University.
Juliette and I have had our ups and downs, but everything we have ever done has been
together; Survivor being at the center of it all.