A Hawaiian Vacation

 Authors note: This piece is written in perspective of a 18 year old girl going on vacation. It is written in first person present tense.


Another long and boring vacation with my family here I come. Whining and pouting all the way to airport just thinking of how I could’ve been on a cruise ship with all of friends. But no, I have to spend my spring break with my little brother and my parents who keep telling me this will be a great family bonding experience. Spending a whole week on the Hawaiian beaches does sound quite relaxing and a lot of fun but not with my family. My kind of vacation is laying on a towel on the beach wearing cute sunglasses while reading a book and sipping lemonade. My parents are the exact opposite. They are way too adventurous for me. They have activities planned for every day of the week. We are going to go explore Hawaii, go fishing, scuba-diving, and snorkeling. They call them daily excursions. I call them having to get up way too early to go on a trip where I will be forced to do something I am extremely scared of.

I arrive at my hotel and my parents let me go to the beach before it’s time to eat dinner. I better enjoy the time I have on the beach because it will be my last. I grab my swim suit, towel, and sunglasses and head towards the beach. I find an open spot and lay my towel down and instantly a little kid who is all wet and covered in sand runs past my towel soaking it and covering it in sand. Grumbling, I shake my towel off and lay down. I am at ease laying in the sun getting a golden tan when I slowly fall asleep. I wake up to my mom standing over me with a OMG look on her face. I sit up, trying to remember everything that was going on when I feel my whole body stinging. I look at my self and see that I am completely sunburned. My mom helps me up and I slowly and painfully walk back to the hotel. As I walk up the beach, every face looks just like my mom’s. What a horrible way to start off an already horrible vacation.

A True Friend

Authors note: This piece is based on the picture below. This is a picture of Ally and myself. In this piece I went back to the times we spent together when we were very young.

The sun is glowing high in the afternoon sky, enjoying every ray together, laughing and running through water spraying at us from every direction. We are screaming and laughing as the Crazy Daisy goes back and forth and trying to dodge the freezing cold water.  Knowing it’s impossible to not get sprayed, I grab the sprinkler that looks like a flower and hold it toward you soaking you from head to toe. Now you want revenge, so you go toward me and grab the flower and start spraying me. We are now both laying on the saturated grass completely soaked and crying because we are laughing so hard.


Laying on my front yard completely soaked and covered in grass may not sound like the most entertaining or fun way to spend a beautiful summer afternoon. The only way this can be a pleasurable time is if you are with that one person who you can do anything with. This person is your best friend. Your best friend is someone who knows all your secrets, knows your strengths, knows your weaknesses, and most importantly knows that they can rely on you for anything and everything. This person in my life is Ally. We have known each other since the first grade and have been best friends since the very first day of first grade. When me meet it was as if we had known each other for ever. There wasn’t that certain shyness between us where we were scared of what the other would think. There was an immediate bond between us that I knew was there to stay.


My friendship with Ally has grown since the first day we met and continues to grow. Our many wonderful memories grow every time we are together. We are very different as people but  we respect each others differences. The friendship between us is here to stay. “Truly great friends are hard to find, difficult to leave, and impossible to forget.”

Embarrasment to the Fullest

I twirl and twirl in my pretty pink tutu with a carefree smile at the age of 4.  Ballet class was my favorite part of the day with the exception of one person -- my teacher. A crazy old lady with white hair sticking up as if she hadn’t brushed it ever. She scared the living daylights out of me. She was one of those people that you avoided conversation with and just did what she said. I was a cute little girl who followed instructions, always. I never wanted to be first in line but I wasn’t at the end either. One day we were doing our regular jumps and twirls and all of sudden it hit me. It had to use the bathroom. I decided I could hold it for the rest of the class. I continued twirling and jumping, but I had to go even worse now. My twirling probably looked more like a potty dance by now.

Oh no, it was my turn  to go in front of the class and leap across the whole dance floor, by myself. I really had to go to the bathroom but I was way too scared to ask. I really, really did not want to ask her. I was afraid she’d yell at me or be really angry, so I decided not to ask her and just hold it. I made my way to the front of the room and started leaping and then the most embarrassing moment of my toddler years happened. I started peeing in front of the whole class while leaping across the room. I did not stop leaping though. I leaped all around the room while I was peeing.

My teacher just kind of looked at me wondering why I didn’t ask to use the bathroom.  She had to do something about the mess so she got paper towel and rags and started cleaning up. Surprisingly she didn’t seem even a little bit mad. When my mom came to pick me up my teacher told her about what happened. When we got in the car she asked me why I didn’t just ask to go to the bathroom I said, “I was scared.” My mom just laughed.