It took me an entire week to gather my thoughts and figure out what I was going to say regarding Spring Break 2016, aka the greatest week there ever was. This post will be exceptionally long, so stay with me. On February 1 at Dollop Coffee Shop in Chicago Corey, Giovanni, and I sat down to do homework. My mother had texted me and asked if I wanted to come home to Boston for Spring Break, so I was perusing the internet looking for cheap airfare. Suddenly I came across tickets for $120. So. Cheap. My friends who were sitting with me asked if maybe we could get a group together and go home. We sat there and thought about it for a second and said, wait, we could actually do this. Everyone texted anyone and we started to form a group. It took about 10 days of the group fluctuating immensely before I thought we had a confirmed list. Ten days later I was sitting in Starbucks, planning on purchasing all the tickets that night when my best friend, Taylor, called me, “I FOUND $100 TICKETS. CAN’T TALK. AT WORK.”
The next 30 minutes would be the most stressful ones of my life. Taylor texted me the details and I went into go-mode. Tickets these cheap would last who knows how long. And when you are booking for 6+ people, you gotta move. I frantically called and texted everyone coming demanding their full names, dates of birth, and anything else. While this was happening, my good friend Jimmy walked into Starbucks and tried to talk to me. I shut him down saying, “Shhhhh. I’m buying time sensitive air fa- oh wait, Jimmy, do you want to come to Boston for Spring Break?” He declined, but three minutes after leaving he texted me, “WAIT! GET ME A TICKET!” That night Corey, Giovanni, and I celebrated the buying of tickets with a nice meal at the dining hall. Jon was in front of us in line while we were waiting for food and after 30 seconds of discussion, we ran back to the table and bought another ticket. Fast forward to two weeks before Spring Break. Jimmy explains that his friend from Minneapolis would love to join us and he purchases a ticket. We had our group, the strangest group of 9 college students (we aren’t a friend group and probably had never all been in the same room at the same time before, but we all liked each other! So that’s good).
On Saturday March 12 at 3:40 a.m. we left for the airport in two Ubers with way too much excitement. The week that followed flowed seamlessly. My family is one that loves to host, so throughout the week including my parents we had 17 people and 8 dogs with us. And we loved it. Every meal was shared at the big dining room table where my dad just seemed to continually be cooking and dishing out delicious food. The fireplace always had a fire in it. We hiked in the woods, hiked Mt. Monadnock, took two trips into Boston, and visited Rockport and the surrounding coast. This group of people laughed far too hard together and danced too much and did an incredible job at just loving everyone. A good friend of mine from camp, Josh, decided to hike Monadnock with us on our second day there. He ended up staying at my house until Friday getting to know all of these new people and becoming part of the group. My best friends from home, my brother, more camp friends, and even another North Parker came and went throughout the week adding into the community.
I really am still unsure as to why the week went so well. Having to host all these people, entertain and feed them, and show them all around the place I call my home should probably have been draining. This place is important to me and so are these people and over the week the importance increased ten-fold. There is something special about being able to share my home, my past, and my family with people. It felt good. Even though I was hosting, cleaning, and cooking for everyone all week, I could not have felt more poured in to. These people are good people; they are quality humans with some pretty cool stories who also allowed me to share mine. Thanks for walking through life with me, friends. Now here’s way too many pictures documenting one of the best weeks of my life.
