Over the years, I have gotten quite a few Hawaiian leis. One would assume, at some point, I must have gone to Hawaii, but I have not.
The first lei I ever got was from when I went to Disney World. We stayed at the Polynesian Resort, and because it is a Hawaiian themed resort, each member of my family got a lei when we checked in. It was cool, since I figured it would be (and still will be) a while before I ever go to Hawaii. Some of the housekeepers actually made decorative art pieces (like a hammock or a boat) with our leis and bath towels with some of the Disney stuffed animals we bought, which was always a nice surprise when we came back to our room.
The next one I received was at my school's 8th grade banquet, which is our form of middle school graduation before starting high school. For this, the theme was Hawaiian Delight! So again, I got a lei, but it was the kind just made out of the cheap plastic (I came from the poor school). Still, it is a reminder of that night and all the dancing!
Thankfully, Hawaii was not the theme of my prom, although that did not go without its problems. Our original theme was “A Night in Paris” but then Paris Hilton’s sex tape with the same name was leaked on the Internet, so our theme just became “Paris.”
Moving on to my sophomore year of college, I started to get into the activities on campus. At the end of the year, SUNYIT has a semi-formal awards banquet for the clubs and organizations. So, for the first awards banquet I went to, its theme was….HAWAIIAN PARADISE!! Which meant I got another plastic lei.
Now at this point, I’m thinking, there is no other way that I will run into another Hawaiian themed party for a while. Well, I was wrong. I got a pink plastic lei at the first annual Wildcat Friday my senior year. Again, it was a tropical theme, although I think they were just using up everything from the semi-formal in storage.
So as you can see, I have quite the collection of different types of leis. I hope to not have a party with the Hawaiian theme for a while, but knowing my luck, I’ll probably be at one within the next year or so.
