It’s a ritual among us. The only time we shed our carefully composed personalities and images and become who we really are. No one quite knows how it started or where this tradition came from but everyone is glad it did. You see we are the ones that the others want to be like, but only because they have no clue what it’s like. Each one of us fits into a piece of a whole that is so delicately arranged that there are no loop holes or chances for mistakes. It’s always been like this. None of us know how we got into this selection, but the one thing we all unite on is that it’s not as good as it seems. Parties, shopping, laughter and smiles. You name it, we’ve done it. It becomes all about keeping up our image, it becomes so much about this that nothing is for fun anymore. Just appearance. That’s why the snow ball fight is possibly the best part of my year. You see it’s not about doing things just for the sake that they are illegal or about a couple dating for the soul reason that they look gorgeous together. It’s not about the ones of us that play hockey and horse ride just because we dress preppy and our parents have trust funds. It’s not about our friends that listen to undiscovered music just because they have a trendy image to maintain. It’s about frost and smiles. Real smiles, not the glossy ones that dominate the front covers of the magazines we read. It’s about drinking thermoses of hot chocolate without worrying about our figures. We all gather in my backyard. I’m not really sure why it’s mine, but it always has been so I don’t argue. We all gather and wear the warmest ugliest sweaters and our oldest floppy hats. Because this is the one time when it’s not about how we look and act. Amidst the laughter we manage to make two different teams. Mostly they are dependent on who likes who and all that. Someone, usually one of the guys, eventually throws the first snowball and then the flurries start. I’m really not sure why we do this. I think our older siblings started it, but I can’t be sure. It’s not a set date, we usually all just end up back at my house after some party and then everyone stays the night and the next afternoon we end up in my back yard wondering what to do. Though the snow ball fight is really the main occasion of the day. It sets the mood for all of us and we end up in my hot tub or pool and the laughing continues. That day is all about the laughing. Sure we laugh in groups at school, we laugh in class at the teacher or at a joke, we laugh a lot, but mostly for show. That’s why none of us our truly happy, we never laugh for no reason. Except for today. I don’t know why I am writing all this down, but I think it’s because I want things to be different. I want us to laugh for no reason all the time, and I want us to do what we really want to no matter what.