A Spontaneous Trip to the Beach

During the early months of Summer break in 2019, my high school friends and I were all hours away from each other. I was still minutes away from our old school, one of them was in Richmond, and the other was in Harrisonburg. I had recently accepted an internship and was finally getting settled in my duties. Stressed from our jobs and daily lives, we decided to make a spontaneous trip to a nearby beach. It was the first summer that my parents allowed me to travel with just my friends and I didn’t care where we went, as long as I was with them and far away from home –– I was happy. Over text, we quickly made hotel arrangements and packed our luggages for a weekend getaway to the beach. Bottles of sunscreen and clothing were stuffed into my small navy suitcase. The next day, we slept over at my friend's place and stayed up until 2 AM, singing karaoke and playing card games, even though we had to leave early in the morning. The next morning, we all piled into her SUV and after driving for hours, we finally arrived at Virginia Beach, chucked our luggages into our hotel, and ran towards the gleaming-endless ocean. While laying the towels on the warm sand, I grabbed my sunscreen and sprayed myself. My arms glistened under the sun and we all sat down simultaneously, letting out a collective sigh of relief. For a day, I didn’t have to think about my internship that I had to return to on Monday. I slowly closed my eyes, letting the sun kiss my skin. Only a few moments later, I could feel a dark shadow loom over me. “Do you want some?” I opened my eyes to see a tub full of fresh watermelon hovering over my face. We each grabbed a piece and laid down on the sand-covered towels. Happy first week of summer.