Even Better

It was spring break 2011.

Naturally I rallied together all my favorite girlfriends and we packed our bags and took off to the sugar sands of Carillon Beach.

Most people don’t know where Carillon is, which is what makes it so special.

I spent my childhood on that beach. I was privileged enough to take dozens of trips a year to the same place because my Grandaddy had a place there. Beach front, all the amenities.

An actual dream for most people and I took it for granted for far too many years.

It was only a 3 hour car ride so we frequented the beach a good bit.

This year, I was grown, and my Grandfather said I could go with my friends.

So, we went.

I rallied my college friends who were from all over.

One in particular, from Iowa.

She spent her summers on the Great Lakes since she lived her life suffering through four actual seasons and summers without humidity.

What even is that like? Snow on Christmas AND snow in March. I truly cannot fathom.

But, for this land locked lady, she had only ever seen pictures of the Gulf.

We pulled up to the condo, off loaded our suitcases and quickly changed into swim suits so we could go enjoy the beach. Every girl on this trip had been to the gulf of Mexico except for the girl from Iowa.

We walked out onto the beach started laying our towels out and I noticed every girl in the group stop and begin to stare in one direction behind me.

It was like they were watching a scary movie or the twin towers get hit again. Actual terror as their eyes fixated on this moment.

I turned to see our land locked friend rolling wildly in the sand. I am talking letting her hair down and ROLLING in the sand, from back to stomach and stomach to back. I have never seen so much sand on someones eyelashes in all my life.

We all stared as she rolled in the sand like a puppy dog trying to satisfy an itch.

Finally I yelled out “WHAT ARE YOU DOING??? you’ll have sand on you for DAYS!”

She stopped flat on her back, age 25, almost tears streaming down, “I have seen pictures of this place my whole life and told myself the moment I get to finally touch it, I want to experience everything that it is.”

We all laughed at her and called her crazy.

Our art major, land locked, friend who would find sand in her behind for the next month for that decision.

I started thinking on it just a few months ago.

I shared the story with my dad who tends to lean on the side of “if it might make you cry, he will be sobbing.”

I was laughing as he burst into tears.

“Why are you laughing?”

Through tears he mustered, “Laura, she waited all her life.”

What a moment that was for her.

We laughed and scoffed and called her wild because we had spent our summers on the sugar sands of the gulf and it wasn’t a dream. But merely, old news.

To her, it was a moment she waited for.

Like when a bride walks down the aisle and the groom crumbles.

Like when a baby is born and the parents begin to sob.

Like when you finally land that dream job after working years scrubbing toilets.

Like when you pay off debt and go out to eat without budgeting.

You simply, don’t want to miss the moment. You don’t want to forget the feeling it gave you when you finally got to the place you always yearned to experience.

I hope today there’s a moment where you stop. Just for a moment and absorb it. Roll around in it. Take it in and let it wash over you. Let it get on your eyelashes and in your teeth.

Let it get all over you so you are still considering it days and even years after it passes.

As I considered that moment for her, I decided to ask her again if she remembered that day.

Here’s what she said: “I imagined it felt like flour. But it was even better.”