A message to myself about Andi Mack and my IRL friends
For the record past me, by the time Andi Mack finished airing you were able to get 6 irl friends to watch the show as well. From 0 to 6, good for you!! You were able to share the beauty of this lil ol “Disney Channel show” with your friends.
And you know that time ages ago where you dragged Friend 2 into watching s3e6 on a whim just because he was on discord with you and Friend 1 and had no idea what was going on? Now friend 2 is the biggest Andi Mack fan friend in the group (excluding you). You both love making references and inside jokes and talking about how special the show is, and in return he introduced you to Kingdom Hearts and we talk about how insane that game is. You strengthened that friendship thanks to this show.
And you were able to get together with your friends to watch the finale together. It was a fun day! Driving up to Friend 2’s house, seeing him poke his head out of the door and yelling to him “HEY WHO WANTS PIZZA??” and laughing as he came to help bring it in. Hunting for his air fryer and frying whatever taters remained in his freezer. Figuring out how to make milkshakes messily and having Friend 5 drop the strawberries and chug his milkshake before we even started watching. You planned to arrive at noon, but didn’t ACTUALLY start watching until nearly 1:30 because of people being late and needing to set everything up.
Maybe later you can ask Friend 1 or Friend 2 to help write down our reactions to the finale, like what you did for Friend 1 and 2 when you first showed the Andi Mack. Or do it yourself, just whatever you can remember. Save it for the memories.
To remember how we called them so smol as we watched the lookbacks, Friend 2 laughed about how Josh was BASICALLY CYRUS, we all laughed at how immortal Emily was compared to the rest of the cast. To remember how frim the start to the end of the finale, we were all screaming all the way through. To remember how you squeezed a pillow the whole time, Friend 2 was nearly on his feet half the episode, Friend 1 was squealing for all the ships, Friend 5 kept having to shush us, and Friend 3 squeezed Friend 4 like a teddy bear since she didn’t have a pillow. And Friend 6, not watching with us, messaging and ranting about Marty as she watched it live.
And then it was over. We laughed, we talked, we couldn’t believe such an amazing show was really over. But we loved how they left some things open while closing others. We screamed about never knowing what would happen at frisbee camp. We joked about the Born This Way scene being a kidsbop video. We couldn’t believe Tyrus was finally endgame. We couldn’t believe Muffy kissed. You didn’t tell them, and probably never will, but the ending reminded you of all of us. Going our seperate ways for college, not knowing what would come. These friends were some who had been my lifeline for 2 years, and now we wouldn’t be together. We couldn’t believe it was all over. I couldn’t believe it was all over.
But it was fun. It was so fun and amazing while it lasted, and it strengthened friendships I hope we’ll keep for years to come. I’m so glad for Andi Mack, not only for showing so many storylines and being such amazing representation and for being so real and true to life and exciting and beautiful, but for being all that and a lovely experience to share with my friends. We share fandoms a lot, but for me at least, Andi Mack was even more special. It brought us together differently. Sure we’d laugh at the antics like all other shows, but we also got to have REAL talks because of this show. Which I feel like brought us even closer together than any other show has.
So even though I didn’t mention it in other Andi Mack appreciation posts, thanks Andi Mack for giving me something great to remember with my irl friends before we go to college. Even though I talked to Friend 6 about needing Andi Mack to get me through college, even if this really is the last time we get to see the GHC, the Macks, and the other kids, the memories I made with it are still going to definitely help me survive college.
So, past me. And future me for that matter. Treasure these moments. These are the moments you’ll remember.
-Trash (7/29/19)
