The Spring Break That Got Away

By Adolfo Gonzalez

Opening my eyes to a bright sunny morning, I realize it’s the first day of spring break. I eagerly get up and begin gathering my things for the day ahead. My friends call me and tell me they are on their way to my place.
The cooler is packed with plenty of beer, sodas and sandwich supplies. I pack my backpack with the essentials: a towel, sunblock, personal hygiene products, a change of clothes and my iPod.
The guys finally arrive. For the sake of naming them, let’s just call them Robert, John and Mike.
Robert was the first to arrive, followed by Mike and John who happened to be riding together. Everyone brought a case of beer because, of course, you can never have too much beer. So we remove the bottles from their cases and place them in the cooler with plenty of ice; that way we can enjoy a cold, refreshing drink when we reach our destination.
We decide to take Robert’s car since it can sit four comfortably and has enough room in the trunk to store the cooler. As we ride down the road, the cool breeze tosses our hair back and forth as we enjoy some tunes on the radio. Still without a set destination, we continue with our spring break journey to nowhere.
With an hour behind us, we finally decide on hitting the beach. I happen to think it’s too cliché a choice for a spring break destination, but majority rules apply when there is a group involved. As we pull up to the beach, we are amazed by how many people had the same mindset as ours.
We finally settle in a spot that is too close to a beach volleyball game but just far enough from the water washing up on shore. I slap some sunblock on myself, set my iPod to some tunes while I kick off my shoes, and crack open my first of many beers to come. As I sit back to relax on my beach chair, a volleyball smacks me square in the face.
I wake up to find out it was all a dream. Talk about a rude awakening. I look at my alarm clock and it is the first day of spring break but, unfortunately, I am scheduled to work and so are my friends. So instead of having that refreshing beer at the beach, I find myself reaching for an energy drink while I drive to work.
If only that dream would have lasted long enough for me to savor the taste of the adolescent freedom we all once had, but life goes on with all the opportunities we once missed.