To my travel buddies,

As we venture to places all over the world, there are no other people I’d rather do it with. 

Oftentimes, it is necessary to wake up ridiculously early the morning of the trip to catch a flight or start the long drive, and it makes me so happy that you share the same excitement that I have—even when the wake-up call comes as early as two in the morning. 

But, even before the morning celebration takes place, a countdown to the day we leave is simply inevitable. Without fail, one of the five of us takes the initiative to make the number of days known and text it in the group chat. When we were all incredibly excited to travel to St. Lucia last summer, our countdown began on day 130. Believe it or not, we kept up with that countdown almost every single day; we needed something to look forward to after months without a vacation. 

The whole airport experience—eating food, riding the moving sidewalk, passing time, etc—would not be the same, or nearly as fun, without you. I love the excitement and business of the airports and seeing planes going to every corner of the globe, and once again, I’m so happy that thrill is shared. 

Once we arrive at the desired location, check into our hotel room, and get all settled, one can find us being “shushed” by our parents as we are most likely disturbing unassuming hotel guests. We’re like squealing little children as we take in all the sights and make ourselves at home. 

Another element of traveling all together is getting to share every meal. Once we all get back home and go our separate ways, it instantly becomes weird that we aren’t sitting around one table, laughing about something that happened during the fun-filled day. It really makes me cherish the time I spend with my travel buddies.

It’s such a relief that we all get along so well. You’d think that spending 24 hours a day together would be bound to bring up some arguments or discrepancies, but, truly, we have spent enough time together to figure out where we all belong and have a routine that is tried and true. 

When we go to destinations with amusement park-like attractions, I can always count on you guys—at least one of you—to go on the wildest roller coaster with me. When it comes to those types of rides, I have no fear, and, most of the time, neither do you. 

Above all, I’m just thankful that we are all together sharing some sort of incredibly fun, unique, and unmatched experience. We all complement each other perfectly—most likely because we’ve always gone on trips together from a very young age. 

The flight or car ride home is somehow much faster than the ride there—we dread leaving the place that allowed us to escape our Michigan life for a little while. We know the sad goodbyes as we head to our respective cars in the airport parking garage or parking lot of the hotel are only temporary, as we will soon go on another adventure.