Senior Airman surprises cousin on Aubrey Rogers softball senior night

A special senior night surprise for Aubrey Rogers High School senior McKenzie Vargas. She embraced her cousin, Senior Airman Landon Cari, as she wiped away tears. The two saw each other for the first time since November 2022.

“I didn’t believe it. I kind of froze, and I didn’t know what was happening,” Vargas recalled.

She added, “I always cry watching those videos on TikTok and YouTube, so now I have a video of myself, I guess.”

McKenzie said Landon is more than a cousin; he’s like a brother. The two would see each other every day. But for the past year and a half, Landon was stationed in Japan.

“Whenever I would reach out to him he wouldn’t answer for like maybe a month or two months. I never knew what he was doing,” Vargas said.

During that time, it was the little things the two missed the most.

“The small little adventures that we have,” Cari explained. “Just going out to eat. Or when we were younger, we’d build forts. Stay up all night. Just those nice childhood memories that we have together.”

“His funniness,” Vargas answered. “Always joking. Always cracking jokes whenever we were in bad moments or sad.”

Landon flew about 24 hours from Japan, even having a flight delay in Dallas. But it was all worth it to be in the crowd to watch one of his favorite cousins play for the Aubrey Rogers softball team.

“I haven’t been able to come out to the games recently,” Cari explained. “I’ve been overseas. It’s hard for us to come out but I’m glad I’m able to be here to surprise her and do this for her.”

Before the game, McKenzie was honored by her teammates, signed her letter of intent to play college softball at Warner University, and even pitched a complete game in a win over Gulf Coast in the first game of their doubleheader.

But for McKenzie, having Landon here, “It makes it 10 times better.”