I write, surrounded by flickering candles and the remnant aroma of Tippy’s Tacos. This is not how plans were supposed to work out, but boy am I glad they did.

Conquering the last of my midterms yesterday, I slept soundly last night, feeling the weight of academic responsibility melt off my shoulders.

I was, however, roused earrrrrly this morning by text messages from my home county’s alert system– public schools were closed due to unusually high wind speeds. I thought that was a bit ridiculous and wondered why my university, where us students have to walk to every single class, didn’t get a similar notification.

But whatever. I digress.

I had planned to leave school around noon with another friend, but developing stories and news from my roommate pulled me away from that plan and the next thing I knew, my roommate and I were packing our lives up,wonderfully interrupted by an email from our school’s administration congratulating us on our admission into our respective major programs.

Flooded with relief, happiness, and excitement, we hit the local Starbucks before racing down the highway, the Shenandoah mountains chasing alongside us to the right, the wind attempting to jostle us out of the fast lane with great persistence.

The new plan was to go home, drop off things I didn’t quite need for the rest of the school year, and then spend the night with my beloved roomie before she so graciously offered to drive me to the airport at the crack of ass tomorrow.

One bathroom break, Fall Out Boy album, and political cardboard sign blown abruptly into the passenger side door later, we arrived at my home where I reunited with my fam for a few hours and finished preparing for my flight.

Shortly after, a very ravenous Traci and I hit the road again, speeding towards the beloved local taco place of her growing up. We grabbed our tacos to go and drove to her house, fighting the wind yet again. Upon arriving in her neighborhood we saw countless houses, all dark.

No power. Hah.

I pulled out the flashlight gifted to me just days prior (for the mission trip) to light the room on top of all the candles. Traci and I ate tacos by candlelight, followed by the most delicious combination of chocolate chip ice cream, chocolate syrup, and Nesquick powder sprinkled on top if ever tasted. [13/10, would recommend!]

I plan to pass out on Traci’s potato [this massive beige beanbag lounge thing in her room longer than my body], despite my excitement for the next 24 hours leading into this coming week.

The wind howls beyond the walls, shaking the house and chilling the air and I can’t help but wonder what that means for our flight tomorrow. But I am ecstatic nonetheless. It’s only the first day of spring break and I can tell… it’s about to be an interesting, bumpy ride.

I can’t wait.

xx