As someone who grew up watching Youtube vlogger trips and who went through a Jersey Shore obsession in high school, I have been waiting for the time when I would finally experience my ultimate young adult fantasy: a vacation with friends. I used to envision driving down the highway with the windows down and my favorite songs playing (which, at the time, consisted of the overplayed songs on the radio in the mid-2010s). I had never been to a beach, or at least not a non-lakeside beach, and I used to dream about sitting in the sand under a starry sky and listening to the waves for the first time. I loved sleepovers so much once I was old enough to have them, but they only were planned every few weekends or so – the idea of having a sleepover with my best friends for several nights on end with no one telling us to be quiet or to go to bed seemed like the ultimate perk of maturing. A standard vacation sounds simple and easily attainable, but when attempting to make it happen, there are so many things to consider. When is everyone available, what is the most affordable hotel to stay at, what location should we even go to. Especially at college-age, when different universities end their semesters at different times, and most people need to spend their summers working to save up for the abominable amount of money that is spent when away at school. By some miracle, a few of my hometown friends and I were able to carve out a few extra days before and after memorial day weekend to spend time at one of the most iconic and well-loved northeast vacation spots: Cape Cod.
My friend, Tya, has a family house there, and has been planning this trip for years. It seemed like the ultimate sign of maturity, since it signified our parents trusting us enough to spend five days four hours away from home, but it made sense considering we had just wrapped up our first year of college. This trip was also our first time seeing each other since winter break, so we all were antsy to have in-depth discussions about how our second semester of school had gone. Since there were six of us, we had to take two separate cars, and created a plan to call someone in the other car so we could entertain ourselves for four hours by discussing any new advancements in our college lore. However, the service ended up being shoddy, so we decided to push it off until we ended up at the house. The drive – which was roughly the same length as my drive from home to college – managed to go by fast as we listened to the shared playlist we had all been adding to for weeks.
The first night of a vacation, no matter who you are with, is full of an itinerary of inevitable things that must get done. Rooms must be picked, items must be sorted, food must be bought (not a great choice to do so after a long car ride without snacks). But once everything was settled, we were all met with the reality that we could now do whatever we wanted. We had a rough idea of when we would take a walk to the beach and the different towns we would try to visit, but that first night, we could simply soak in our excitement to be together again for the first time in forever. Somehow, Bella ended up being placed in the role of chef for the entire trip, which she did a fantastic job at. After we ate the chicken alfredo she had made that first night, and after we all shared our most interesting stories from our months apart, Jenny and Grace shared their idea of taking a late night trip to the beach. The water was going to be freezing no matter what, and half of us were not even going to change into our swimsuits, but we did not really have anything to do that we were not going to spend the next five nights doing. The house was a mere five minutes from the shore, and followed an isolated road with tall, hovering trees. It was a sight out of an indie film taking place in the midwest, despite being at a popular coastal vacation spot. While it was hard to see the ocean and the nearby estates on the coast, there will always be something special about the beach at night.
It did not fully sink in how independent this whole trip felt until we were walking around the nearby towns. We had the freedom to make our own schedule and take time in any store we wanted. I have shopped at a variety of places in quite a few beach towns before, but this trip definitely introduced me to some super cool places. I have been wearing the bracelets and rings I bought in Chatham non-stop, with me and Olivia getting similar evil-eye bracelets from the same shop. While we were there, we were lucky enough to see a few sea lions lounging in the water. In Provincetown, I found a used book-shop, which are my favorite places to find new things to read. Bella spotted a tattoo shop and was fully prepared to go home that night with new ink, but they were unfortunately booked up. Throughout all of these trips, I would spot other groups of girls and have the instinct to think that they came across as so mature and grown up – in reality, we were really just like them.
I felt sad as the trip came to a close even though it was only a few days. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that this had really been everything I wished for as a kid. I was not the biggest fan of summers at points in my adolescence because I hated not having anything to do or the freedom to meet up with anyone at a moment’s notice, let alone spend an extensive amount of time with them. Here I am now, after my first year of college, still close to my friends from home, and getting to experience time with them that I will forever look back upon fondly. Our last night at the house we decided to take another late night beach trip, and this time the sky was incredibly clear. The stars were prominent enough that we could spot constellations. The waves were big enough that they drench hair and create a repetitive noise. It brought me back to the dreams I used to have about the shore at nighttime before I had even been there, and I learned about all the good my life had brought me since then.