Spring Break '08

What can I say? Spring break was one of the most amazing and rewarding things that I've ever done.

We (Brad, Kevin P, Kevin B, and me) left from Salisbury around 330 Friday afternoon and began our 21 hour journey to Florida. After a quick stop at Brad's house for him to pack and for us to eat, we roll up to College Park at 8 and get on the bus with the Jersey kids at 930. I slept from Virginia to South Carolina until we had to stop at 4am to switch drivers, and then I slept again from the driver switch to Georgia when we stopped for breakfast at Cracker Barrel. After breakfast I didn't sleep much the rest of the way. We were stuck in stand-still traffic behind an accident on the interstate somewhere in Florida. Finally we get to Panama City Beach and to the resort around 5pm, 21 hours after we left College Park and 27 hours after we initially began our journey from Salisbury.

The entire week felt like it was just one big party. We woke up every morning and had our quiet time with God, and then made our way to the morning conference where we had worship and a few speakers. We were done by 1130 most mornings and had until 1 to eat lunch and do whatever. At 1pm all 850 of us Big Breakers headed out to our respective places on the 7.8 mile stretch of beach.

The first time that we headed out on the beach to talk to people, I was a bit nervous and skeptical about how things would go. But once I saw how open college kids were to hearing what we had to say, it was really encouraging. I am so glad that I got to go out with Tim on the first day, I really got to know him and he was totally fine with me just playing wingman until I was ready to initiate the convos. Every conversation that we had on the beach through the week was amazing. Yea, we had some people who didn't want to talk to us, but we also had people who were really eager to hear what we had to say.

I'm having a really hard time summing up this week into words, it was just beyond amazing. Us Salisbury guys really got to know each other a lot better this week and were just able to fellowship together which was awesome. I can honestly say that I made 27 genuine friends this week, and they all go to UMD. The college park kids are so chill and I'm seriously going to miss all of them and I cannot wait to see them again at the spring retreat and then again later that month : )

I guess to sum it up, it was truly one of the most spiritually amazing times of my life and I came back a changed man because of it.