My hair whipped in the wind, swooping in and out the car window.Taking in the minty smell of the freshly farmed land, I slowly allowed my head to tilt into the breeze. Year after year of leaving the airport and making our way to St. Johns, the feeling of joy that I get everytime never changes. Enjoying the car is generally hard for a kid, but for me it was only a reminder of the memories that were held here by my family and I.

“I’m home” my mind gently whispered to me as the first glimpse of my grandparents house appeared out of the corner of my eye. The same feeling I get when pulling into my own driveway after a long trip came over me when pulling up to the side of the house. I was filled head to toe full of excitement, I was practically bubbling like a pot of boiling water. Running up to the door with my suitcase and backpack, my grandma flung open the door and wrapped me in a warm hug. It was the start of an amazing week.

An hour later after I had settled in a room, and freshened up from the long plane ride I found myself in the car with my sister, my mom behind the wheel again heading to pick up my cousin. After almost a year of not seeing my cousin mathias and two years of not seeing the rest of my cousins, I was more excited than ever. We pulled up to a stop about twenty minutes out where my aunt was with my cousins cassie and mathias after cassie’s basketball game. My sister and I were both wrapped in tight and warm hugs. After a couple minutes of exchanging hellos and some laughs, mathias hopped in the car, and cassie headed home for the night. We were on our way back to Grandma and Grandpa’s house.

“Wake up sydney its eleven!” my mom gently shook me as I stretched out. It was the first morning since we had arrived in St.Johns and our friends Noah and Gabe were about to arrive with Jenny, my moms best friend since fourth grade. I rolled out of bed to put on my bathing suit since we were going to be swimming in my grandma and grandpa’s pool. The doorbell rang and I ran downstairs where my mom and sister had just answered the door. I was quickly wrapped in a tight hug by gabe before I could take a breath from the minute of running around. Noah and Jenny followed and I laughed and hugged everyone back with a smile from ear to ear. We were together for hours having the most fun we could have for the time being, we had missed everyone so.

I laughed as the rollercoaster swerved and everyone around me screamed. I couldn’t help but think that things couldn’t possibly be any better than the way they were at that exact moment. It was close to the end of our week long trip but we were spending it in the best way possible. At an amusement park...with a water park. The perfect combination of the scents of chlorine and caramel corn mixed in the air and slowly ran through my nostrils. I was with my friends noah and nick and my cousin cassie while the rest of my family was on the other side of the park. We hopped on a little train to take us a different part of the park after we exited the second to last rollercoaster of the day. Our last rollercoaster was a short 30 second ride and we all started heading to the water park. Life was too good to believe and all it took was seeing family and friends to realize that.

Quick as it had come, it had gone.The trip was officially over. My mom, sister, and I had all of our stuff packed in the back of the rental car trunk and we were snapping our last photos and saying our last goodbyes. We had the last hugs we would get for a while and it was painful to think of it that way, so I tried not to. I started to think of it as a short “trip” away from them. We hopped in the car and slowly began to back out of the driveway. Lucas and Landon two of our cousins chased the car out of the neighborhood. We began to turn out of the street and they stopped on the sidewalk and waved. The windows were down and my sister and I let our hands dangle out the window and screamed goodbye. My last thought before hitting the highway was, “until next year..”