What is the best day of the year? Christmas? Your birthday? Last day of school? All of us can relate to these glorious days, and the joy we have experienced during these times. But I wouldn’t dare say any of these days are the best without feeling like I have betrayed everything I believe in. No. There is only one day that stands alone at the top. The first day of Spring Break. Spring Break is the Peyton Manning of weeks- The GOAT. The Christian Watford’s three against Kentucky of weeks- Shout out IU and the only reason Tom Crean is still there. The Dwight Schrute of weeks- Shout out Beat Farmers and Michael Scott. The Benny “The Jet” Rodriguez of weeks- Shout out everyone’s first crush. You get the point? It is true paradise.
From my own experience, Spring Break has figured out the true equation for happiness. Here is simplified breakdown of the equation. It is a must that a week be full of no responsibilities. A week of sitting on the beach getting crispy burnt- so by day three it is a long sleeve, a hat, and many questions of why you didn’t listen to your mom about reapplying that sunscreen. Maybe that’s just me. A week that consists of everything being covered in sand by the fourth day or sooner. It is a week where your hardest decision is to go cool off in the pool or the ocean. Finally and most importantly, a week where Jimmy Buffet is your personal DJ narrating your life. If that’s not true happiness, then I don’t wanna ever experience what it really is.
Spring Break is seven extraordinary days. My first experience of Spring Break goes back to when I was still in grade school about to head to Gulf Shores along with the rest of the Eastside Indianapolis. Everyone that mattered in my life seemed like they were heading to the same destination, so things were about to be as rowdy as any 10 year old can imagine. Water balloons? Check. Headbands? Check. Sandals with socks? Obviously. And with a fully stocked fridge of ice cold Country Time Lemonades, there was no ceiling to the possibility of this week. Once I got that first taste of Spring Break, my life has never been the same. I simply live 51 other weeks of the year in meditation to ensure I am in tip top shape for when Heaven rolls around again.
More than a decade later, my excitement for this week has not diminished in the slightest. Things are a slight different now that I am veteran to the Spring Break game. Water balloons to beer bongs. Headbands to jerseys. Sandals with socks to only sandals- purely because I know it is not socially acceptable anymore being an “adult”. I am not happy about that one. I exchanged the fully stock fridge of lemonades to a properly packed cooler of adult beverages. Side note: Is there anything that makes you feel like an adult more than a properly packed cooler? Once you accomplish this feat, you have crossed into the adult world. If you have not done this, I challenge you to do this during your Spring Break. Opening a perfectly packed cooler and seeing the beauty that lies within is probably the 8th wonder of the world. Crack a cold one once the achievement is accomplished and your toes are in the sand. Once again, the legacy of this week is up to you and what you choose to make it. So why not make it the best….until next year of course?
So my friends, let’s recap. 52 weeks in a year. One week to live like a celebrity minus the paparazzi and that one annoying friend that always captures you at your worst. A week of Mr. Jimmy Buffet and any other song involving a beach. A week of wondering why people think it is so much fun to be buried up to their neck in sand. A week of naps on the beach. A week of trying to skin board and the countless cuts that remind you next year to stop trying. A week equivalent to what I imagine sitting on the Iron Throne feels like. Shout out Game of Thrones. A week where life moves a little bit slower to allow you to be in control of what seems like everything. “If there’s a heaven for me, I’m sure it has a beach attached to it.”- DJ Buffet
So Props to you Spring Break and all the Spring Breakers that have made this week the greatest week of my life, time and time again.
Now, grab your sunscreen, beach towels, coolers, and have one hell of a Spring Break.
Cheers.
Grabbing life by the horns and hanging on for the ride.
- The Greatest Week of the Year - March 9, 2015
