When me and Natalie went to the fair, on the drive there we listened to a playlist that I’m 90% sure was called “Bubblegum Kpop” on Spotify. Natalie was one of the first people to get me into K-pop. I’m not really a super fan of it, but I definitely do listen to songs from different girl groups.

I remember before her unicorn themed birthday party, Natalie was telling me about how she was planning this 10 hour playlist for it, and there was a bunch of K-pop songs on there too. I specifically remember watching a K-pop music video with her on the back porch while a bunch of people were still in the pool. The girls in the video were riding around on bikes and there was an ice cream shop at one point. I’m pretty sure it was the music video for Likey by Twice, which is so funny because that’s one of my favorite songs by them now!

But anyway, when we were driving to the fair, I memorized some of the song names that came up on the radio so I could listen to them later LOL! Two of the songs were: “It is said” by Oh my Girl Banhana and “Talk to me” by Elris. I wore those songs out about a year later when we were freshmen. And then I was listening to them a lot this November too. I love those songs and K-pop girl groups now. Listening to that music has always made me think of her

One time me and Natalie went to go see the Teen Titans Go movie in theaters. Before we went, we stopped at the dollar store and picked up a bunch of candy to sneak in. That was the first time I tried buncha crunch, and it’s one of my all time favorite candies now. It’s absolutely a movie necessity. Also, that was the first time I 100% understood Natalie’s hype about the dollar store because there was SO MUCH candy to choose from. It was good stuff too, not just like five flavors of Mike and Ike’s or something. That building is a Wellstar urgent care now, and I drive by it whenever I’m coming home from school so I’ve always thought about her whenever I pass there.

I’m the type of person to get to movies before the previews even start, so it was fun to show up at the theater to get tickets practically as the move was starting. There weren’t very many seats left, so we literally got first or second row seats. When we got in the theater, there were a few good seats open, but I was too scared to steal someone’s seat, so I convinced Natalie to sit in the front still. We watched the whole thing looking directly up at the screen. Our favorite part was when Robin sang a song about having his own movie and his booty in 3D, and then that part of the movie weirdly became a meme like four years later.

I was looking through our text messages the other day, and I saw that we went to go see the live action Dora movie together too. There aren’t too many crazy things that happened with that story. We went in kind of ironically and thinking that the movie was going to be bad, but then after we saw it we both genuinely gave it a 10/10

More things I found from the fair! 

I thought that Natalie’s mom was just taking a picture, and I think Natalie didn’t like being stuck on the ride 

I went through a bunch of hard drive folders today, and I found this video of me and Nat from the first time she came to my house from April 2019. (Volume warning towards the beginning)

Me and Natalie really liked the kazoo kid meme, and before she came over I had found out that the meme is actually from a VHS tape that was 30 minutes long and available for free on YouTube. So of course we watched the whole thing, found out that there was a sequel that was even longer, and watched that too. 

After watching the VHS reuploads,  we made this video making fun of different parts of them. For a little bit of context, we also found out that the toy company Melissa and Doug made the tapes, and that it was the first big thing that they had ever done as a company. So that picture of a random man and woman at the end is actually them LOL😭😭

Here’s a link to the YouTube video we watched: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=B1tL6rFsyAQ&pp=0gcJCR4Bo7VqN5tD 

Natalie brought so much warmth and humor to every session. I always enjoyed hearing about her projects, from costume design to clowning. She wore her creativity on her sleeve, quite literally, with the vibrant colors and custom touches she added to her wardrobe. Natalie was creative in every sense of the word, full of brightness and warmth. While I know she struggled with darkness in her mind, there was never a trace of it in her heart.

Dr. Bauth, the entire team, and I are keeping you and your family in our thoughts and prayers during this incredibly difficult time.

Thank you for your kind words and for the privilege of being inspired by Natalie’s incredible creativity. I can only imagine how many lives she touched and inspired throughout her life.

Please do not hesitate to reach out if there is anything at all I can do to help.