I write this article on my first night of vacation with my family. After a 5 hour drive, I heard things that gave me deja vu from past family vacations. This year, we happen to be returning to the spot we vacationed at last year, however, I have heard these phrases said on every vacation I have been on with my family.

The first couple hours of the car ride are usually okay. This year especially, because my parents just picked me up from the summer camp I work at and I hadn't seen them in 3 weeks so we had a lot to talk about. We talked about work and things I needed to get done for college and my brother caught me up on what I missed at home. After the first couple hours, however, things inevitably shifted to the typical family vacation banter. It's not that my family and I don't love each other, but that being in a car for 5+ always brings these 5 things out of us.

1. Do we have to listen to this music?

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Now that I am an adult and my little brother is 15, we bicker a lot less over the music but there is still always some angst over gets more of "their" music listened to. I prefer country or 80's and my brother prefers punk rock. We normally switch off CD's but nevertheless, I caught myself asking him if he had any other music and vice versa.

2. I have to pee.

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On a 5-hour car ride, there is no question that there will be multiple bathroom breaks. Again, now that we are older, we don't get as annoyed with the person who has to stop as we did when we were younger. This time it happened to be me! I have type 1 Diabetes and my blood sugar was high, resulting in me having to pee approximately every 45 minutes. " I have to pee" was definitely said multiple times on this ar ride!

3 .I'm hungry

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Ahh, the classic road trip/boredom hunger. This will usually be said relatively soon after a meal or after the snacks were packed up and everyone was asked if they wanted everything. My parents looked back a couple hours in and I was leaned over into the back of the car trying to dig out popcorn because I was STARVING and I had stupidly said no to food earlier. Let's not forget that the person who said this can almost always be satisfied with gas station chips. No matter what time of day you're traveling, this will always be said.

4. I forgot to pack X.

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You spend months planning your vacation, weeks preparing, and hours packing yet still, without fail, every year someone forgets something! Whether it's your brothers swim trunks, your mom's beach gear, or your diabetes supplies (whoops) you'll probably have to find a store near your vacation spot and purchase whatever item it was you forgot at home.

How close are we// are we there yet??

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Ah the classic. This is the one parents hate the most but we kids can't stop asking. No matter if we've been to the same spot 5 times, we will still always ask how close we are. We can't help it, we're curious! We're mostly just excited to gt there which manifests itself through the incessant questions.

Despite hearing these phrases year after year, we'll ever stop saying them as long we go on family vacations. Overall, I love my family so much and am so grateful for the time we get to spend away from "real life" where we are less stress and nicer to each other in general. Spending this precious time with people I love in a beautiful is worth hearing 1000 " are we there yet's".