Before I met Blake, the farthest southwest I had ever been was probably Orlando, Florida—my point, not far at all. Being born and raised on the East Coast you have the privilege of so many places being near each other. I live two hours from New York City, three from Washington D.C. and can reach the ocean in just an hour and a half. My parents both raised my sister and I to adore New England and our summers were spent between the Maine coast and Vermont lakes and mountains. We took trips to Florida occasionally for school to Disney World, Universal Studios or with my family but mainly stayed North of Maryland.
That all changed October of my sophomore year of college. For my fall break, Blake and I decided to fly to Dallas, so I could finally meet his family and experience a part of the country I had never been to before. I tried okra for the first time, true Texas BBQ, and met his lovely family and dogs. It was the beginning of what would be many firsts over the course of a year that all came about through meeting Blake. In May, after the completion of our sophomore year we packed up the car and drove from Hartford, Connecticut to Destin, Florida. We drove through Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, D.C., Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and then Florida. We stopped at Auburn University to have lunch with his childhood friend and by the end of the day, we were saying cheers on the beach to a nearly 20-hour drive behind us. At the end of our week stay in Florida we drove from Destin to Dallas. Through Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana on another 12-hour trip.
Now over a year later, I am about to do this trip in reverse for the fourth time. Our trips are spent talking about almost any topic you can imagine—stories of growing up, reminiscing on past years at college, to our most recent favorite—listening to crime podcasts and then debating whether or not the convicted committed the crime. I find that some of my favorite memories are with him on those trips, random funny moments at rest stops in the middle of nowhere Virginia, binge-listening to a podcast for hours, blasting "Sweet Home Alabama" as we cross the state line.
This last trip we took was different than the others–not only did we take a different route, through the Great Smoky Mountains in Tennessee but a kind of nostalgia was in the air as we drove north. This would be the last time we drove from Florida to Trinity. Our school, the place we met nearly three years ago. A place we have come to love for our friends, the memories and the proximity it is to Chick-Fil-A. We are so lucky to have had such a great experience and education, but I cannot believe how fast the time has gone by. One more year of hockey games, of Tap Tuesdays, nights at Psi-U, lazy Sundays with the snow falling outside, one more year until bills become a reality, until we are in the workforce, until we are no longer college students. There's a kind of excitement about the idea of being an adult, being completely independent of our parents, but I know that when the time comes I will quickly realize that I was incredibly lucky to have loved my school and the people I met there so much. For now, enjoy the pictures we took along this last journey from Florida to Hartford.
