This is the tale of my 2024 spring break adventures!
At Yale, we are very fortunate to have a relatively lengthy spring break. Most of my non-Yale college friends only get a week, but we get two!! It is certainly the school’s attempt to make up for the grueling weeks leading up to the break. I took advantage of the break by splitting it into two parts: one week at home and one week away with friends.
My first week back home in New Jersey lined up perfectly with my dear friend Estefani’s birthday. She was hosting a birthday celebration and I’m lucky to have been home for that. When I wasn’t with my hometown friends, I was driving around or spending time with my cat, Mabel. I also had a college friend stay at my house for the first time, and she saw firsthand how lovely a small New Jersey town can be. She also says that I seem happier in Jersey than in New Haven, but that is certainly because I was reunited with Mabel.
This is not the point of this blog, but there is something to be said about the development of and distinction between college and hometown friends. It’s not something you fully wrap your mind around until you experience having these friend experiences in completely different places, both geographically and mentally. It’s sort of the precursor of having coworkers as an adult, but in this case, the job is “Yale student.” Having those two worlds collide is fun and nerve-wracking all at once. I’m so fortunate for the friends I have made and for those to come; each person is a universe and I am lucky to be even a small part of their cosmic worlds.
While my first week of spring break was spent in a very familiar environment, I spent the second week in an unfamiliar place: the west coast. I have been to the west coast a few times, but never in this sort of capacity under which my college friends and I had full say of what we saw and did. It was also nice to not be the sole planner as I usually am for family trips, thank you Madi for your thorough research that made for the best, smoothest trip. Since then, we’ve traveled a bit more, but this was a milestone worth mentioning.
We landed in Seattle but spent very little time there. Instead, we became intimately familiar with Port Angeles and the greater Olympic National Park area. If you have not visited, please make the trek at some point. The Pacific Northwest is otherworldly in the best way. Also, if you have watched Twilight then you’ll appreciate the areas we visited even more because of their connection to the franchise. Words cannot describe how beautiful and transformative this trip was, but I’ll try to capture the beauty with pictures. Keep in mind that every color was livelier in person. We walked over 15,000 steps every day while wearing our Yale sweatshirts to keep us warm. This trip holds a special place in my heart and I hope I have conveyed this with this reminiscent blog.
As I look back, I realize how much these two weeks were a perfect blend of comfort and adventure. I had the chance to reconnect with my roots in New Jersey, celebrate friendships old and new, and step outside my usual world to explore the breathtaking landscapes of the Pacific Northwest. Now, with my mind refreshed and my heart full, I settle back into the fast-paced rhythm of Yale life and plan to tackle the rest of the semester with the memory of my past adventures and those to come.
