Mary Kay and Kerrie May

I can hardly believe I’m going to college. COLLEGE! And with my best friend too. Life feels so perfect right now. My name is Kerrie May and my best friend in the whole world is Mary Kay. No, not the make-up variety. In fact, I don’t think the person who chose her name even knew that “Mary Kay” was a make-up company. Although there is something very “made up” about this situation.

Anyway, moving on. Our names rhyme. Isn’t that crazy? I love Mary Kay’s name. I secretly wish MY name was Mary Kay. But at least mine rhymes with my best friend’s. So, Mary Kay and Kerrie May. We’re headed to college. We’re going to be roommates. It’s going to be wonderful.

We load up all of our belongings and all the new things we want to put in our dorm room, and we head to college. Just Mary Kay and me. We have a rather strange vehicle. It’s a horse-drawn carriage. Yes, even stranger than our names rhyming I guess. But I know that everyone at college will think our mode of transportation is the best. We sit side by side in the front, with all our luggage in the back. The carriage is a bamboo-framed affair. The seats are not very comfortable but it doesn’t matter because we are so excited to be going on this adventure together.

Mary Kay and Kerrie May.

We don’t know what college will be like because we’ve never seen one. We’ll have to use our imagination. That won’t be hard. We’ve already used it to turn this bamboo jungle gym into a horse drawn carriage. We’re sitting on the lower bamboo bar of the parallel bars that Dad has constructed for us. We’re using the rest of the jungle gym as the back of the carriage. Dad made this jungle gym for us out of bamboo poles lashed together with grass rope that he purchased at the market. When we get bored of this particular jungle gym (ahem, I mean carriage) we’ll ask Dad if he can build us a new structure.

So here we sit, balancing on a bamboo pole with make-believe luggage in our make-believe carriage. We’re two young girls playing in the back yard of our Indonesian home.

But in our minds this makes perfect sense. Just like our names. We wave goodbye to our parents, flick the reins to urge our imaginary horses on, and embark on our new college adventure.