I have always loved to travel and explore the world. I love to meet new people, try new food, and enjoy every single moment of my life while I can in a new destination. Whenever I go on a new trip, I open my Notes App in my iPhone and quickly jot down each memory of each day so I can look back, and never forget what happened on that day and night.
Doing this makes the withdrawal process a little harder, because other than pictures, I can actually look back and remember what certain people have said, or get a slight glimpse of how I was exactly feeling in that moment. I promise you, once I get back on a vacation, I will be looking at those jotted notes for months on end. Vacation withdrawal hits me way too hard.
Traveling is all fun and games unless you suffer from extreme vacation withdrawal afterward as I do. Maybe I get attached to my lifestyle and people I have met too quickly in those short few days, and don't want to return back to reality. It's a hard concept to grasp, but you eventually get over it, or at least I try to. Songs, photos, tan lines...anything can be a constant reminder of the fun you had and the desire to return and live every moment again.
Recently, I went on a girls trip with some of my good friends in my sorority for spring break to Daytona Beach, Florida. Let me just say, it was a typical college spring break experience I could never forget. After a woman Donna drove up to us on the beach, (yes, apparently they do that in the South) and offered us VIP cards to get into any bar for free, and not pay for a single drink every night from 8-10PM, we were completely sold and ready to embark on a new cool experience while we can.
She handed us over a schedule on a bright yellow paper decorated in palm trees, perfect for the Florida weather, of a list of the schedule of every bar, pool party and restaurant "everyone would be at." Maybe it was a scam, maybe it wasn't, but it was worth giving it a try.
I am so damn glad we gave it a try. My friends and I would spend our days chilling poolside or on the beach soaking up the sun, and then would come back to our hotel room all crispy and tan ready to have a fun girls night out. If you are a girl, you already understand the beauty of getting ready together with loud music playing and looking through each other's suitcases for the perfect top because everything you own just can't work for that specific night. The four of us barely spent money every time we went out to these college kid-filled bars.
But the fun part of all of this was the fact that once we made a solid friend group, we saw the same people out each night. Between boys from London we met on the beach, or Southern Gentleman from the deep south of Georgia, we felt comfortable entering a bar each night and somehow finding familiar faces from the night before. Let me just say, I had not one problem teaching these people from the south or the UK how to properly fist pump to EDM music like how we do it back in New Jersey. I always bring a little piece of home with me wherever I go. How much of an impact on their trip did we have on them? Unfortunately, we'll never know.
Girls trips are special, and it's hard to understand until the moment you step foot in the airport on the way home, and in my case, back to the freezing cold weather. There is just something so fun about spending the day together laughing over the night before, sharing clothes, dancing with new people, and making crazy memories. Who else would a DJ pull into the DJ booth and let them dance in front of an entire club while they created music for everyone to dance to? I think that is why the withdrawal process of going away becomes so difficult afterward.
It's similar to living with girls in a house in college- you stay with your best friends every day and never get tired of leaving and returning back home to life, not as a student. When you are on vacation, especially in a tropical area like Florida for a few short days, you become accustomed to the lifestyle of a nice hotel, ocean view, quick day at the beach and never want to return home to unfortunate college stress.
What is important about vacation withdrawal, is that at the moment it teaches you to always live in the moment, and never be afraid to just go for it. Say yes to new opportunities often, and don't shut something down so quickly because it isn't what you are used to. This is how you create memories; step out of your comfort zone and live your life to the fullest while you have complete ability to. Nothing is stopping you from making these special memories with the people you love, or the people you might meet, other than yourself.
"The best moments in your life will be the ones that almost didn't happen, with someone you never expected and in some place you never knew existed"- r.m. Drake