Spring Break by Kelley

There is something about a road trip that excites me. I don’t know if it’s the endless opportunities, the sense of adventure, or the forced bonding time, but I absolutely love road trips. This year’s Spring Break not only came with an arctic air, but a deep-seated nostalgia for home. I spent Spring Break this year with 5 friends on a road trip through New England. We stayed in Narragansett, Rhode Island, and made day trips throughout the region.

Before making my move to Maine in August, I wanted to get a better sense of the region that will become my home next year. For 21 years, I’ve known the Colonial Parkway, The Cheese Shop, and Pierce’s Pitt Bar-B-Que to be where I can find someone I know. But now, that’s all going to change. The highways will have signs for New Hampshire and Bangor and Boston. Interstate and State Route numbers will be different. Katherine is the only person I will know in a place that is as foreign to me as the place where we met – on a high school study abroad to Italy. But I think maybe that’s where the fun will lie. I went to college in my hometown, and I’m so glad that I did. This is my home, these are the buildings that have defined me, even before my time as a student. Yet, now, I get the chance to learn who I am on my own.

Spring Break this year, while a week full of adventures and travel, was also a wake up call. For the first time in my life, I will be responsible for making somewhere else “home.” Yikes.

– Kelley Quinzio