Brianna Cox '20
I stepped off the bus and immediately regretted my decision to put on jeans and booties that morning. It was 75 degrees out, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky, and we had one hour to experience the beautiful beaches of Hilton Head, South Carolina.
Corralling my fellow freshmen and leading the way, I could feel every moment ticking by as we waited for sandwiches at Subway. As much as I wanted to eat lunch, I was desperate to experience a taste of summer on this tour. Spending spring break singing with my best friends beat going to Cancun and partying all week, but I wasn’t going to let a time constraint come between me and my lifelong love, the beach.
We rushed to the shore as soon as we paid for our sandwiches. The warm, powdery sand felt so soothing against our tired feet. While we sat on the sand eating our lunch, the warm wind blew around us, tangling our hair and threatening to blow our Subway bags halfway across the island. Vacationers lounged or swam in the gentle waves. In our travel attire, we stuck out on that beach like a sore thumb, but we didn’t care. We took pictures by the water and drew our names and Chorus’s Instagram handle in the sand.
A few of us began wading in the water, and my friend Eri was fascinated by the way her feet sunk into the sand with each passing wave. It made me so happy to see her experience the beach for the first time. To me, every time I come to the beach it feels like my first. Having forgotten I wasn’t wearing a swimsuit, I waded deeper and deeper, and before I knew it, my jeans were soaked up to my knees. We could only enjoy the beach for a few more minutes before we had to rinse our feet and head back to the bus. I pulled my socks over my wet and sandy feet and slipped my booties back on.
As the grains of sand grinded against my feet and the breeze chilled my wet legs, I felt a little angry that our schedule didn’t allow for a full beach day. However, I pushed away the tour rage and reveled in the fact that I had a full hour to enjoy the warm southern weather. When I got back to the bus, I shared a laugh with Lauren K, who’d gotten so excited that she’d jumped full-body into the ocean, soaking her hair and dress in the process. That’s when I realized that our little adventure of squeezing a beach day into one hour was worth it, little as it was. We’d made the best of our situation and had an amazing Atlantic Coast beach day. Weeks after tour, this hour still stands out to me. After all, it’s the little moments that we always remember when things get messy.