Surviving a rollercoaster ride from Miami

I have successfully made it to Miami and back, all in one piece. Before I left, everyone I told about my trip gave me questioning looks, wondering why in the world I was going to Miami. I would just shrug and explain it was my friends’ choice. Besides, I’m a college student and I guess that’s where college students go on vacation. 

Overall, it was a fun trip. We only had one sunny day on the beach for me to obliterate this paleness of my skin, but the beach was still fun. Every day we were on the beach at least once, but most days it was cloudy and windy. The ocean was warmer than the air - that is if you survived the waves. 

In my family, trips meant going to bed early (-ish) when it was dark and waking up early to get full appreciation of the day. Turns out, my friends follow a very different schedule. We would go to bed late and, though a few of us would wake up early or at a reasonable time, the rest enjoyed the first daylight hours in bed. On one such morning I became rather agitated because it was 10:30, some of them were still in bed, and I wanted to go to the beach and enjoy my morning before it was gone. Finally, I stood up, proclaimed to all who were awake that I was going to the beach, and informed them they could join me if they wanted. Then we left. 

My group and I were only gone half an hour when we came back to see if everyone wanted to have breakfast, but in the meantime the lay-a-beds had left for the beach themselves. They had the key to get in, so we eventually found them further up the beach. They didn’t look at us; when we asked whether they wanted to get breakfast, they promptly claimed they had already eaten. So that was that. Ourselves, we were starving, so we left to get breakfast without them, leaving them to sulk and be angry…I guess because we left without them that morning? Not my fault they didn't want to get out of bed before eleven. 

They must have gotten over their grudge, though, because the rest of the trip was fine. We spent a lot of time on the beach and even wandered around downtown Miami one day, seeing the cruise ships, yachts, Miami Heat basketball stadium, and the popular mall. I wish we had done more exploring, but I guess we did go to Miami because of the beach, so perhaps it’s only right we spent as much time there as we could. 

Coming back, though, we had the worst flight I’ve ever experienced, even though I flew quite frequently in Europe. Our flight left at six in the morning, but the winds in Miami were so strong, we were wondering if they would even let us fly. Well, they did. As the plane picked up speed on the tarmac, all the passengers were shoved side to side as the wind would shake the plane and the pilots would try to correct the course. We, thankfully, got into the air and after struggling a bit before making it above the clouds, were able to breathe a sigh of relief. We continued to hit occasional turbulence throughout the flight, though, to the point where the flight attendants couldn’t even come around with the food and beverage cart. Toward the end, we hit turbulence so bad it felt like we were on an extreme rollercoaster rather than airplain seats. I even started praying to God to help the pilots and asking that we would land safely. He must have heard my prayers, because landing was a lot smoother than takeoff. 

Now I thankfully have a couple days to relax before school kicks into full gear again next week. I will be doing a lot of sleeping, in case anyone is wondering. 

My Determination: “What I came to realize is that fear, that’s the worst of it. That’s the real enemy. So, get up, get out in the real world and you kick that bastard as hard you can right in the teeth.” – Walter White Jr., Breaking Bad