Happy Days on Top Sail Island

Can you recall a moment in your life that was so perfect you wish you could bottle it up forever? I can think of a few times that fit that description and last Saturday is definitely one of them. My “best people” from optometry school made the 18-hour roundtrip trek from Pennsylvania to North Carolina just to spend 24-hours with my little family & I. I knew when they came traipsing through our front door at 4 o’clock in the morning in high spirits & a case of the giggles after getting lost in the backwoods of North Carolina that good times were ahead.

Once every one was rested & fed, we all decided to take a stroll on the beach. It started off innocent enough – we reminisced & vented about our optometry school plights, collected seashells & played in the sand.

It didn’t take long before Ashley was chasing Israel down the beach…

and all of us ended up swimming in the Atlantic fully-dressed…

Back at the beach house we all took turns freshening up in the outside shower, which if you haven’t tried it before, was so exhilarating! Thanks to the mixing skills of J & Hoyeon, the drinks were freely flowing by noon.

The rest of the day (and night) was spent eating good food, listening to great music, telling stories, and indulging our competitive natures with arm-wresting and dancing…a lot of dancing.

As the night drew to a close, we wandered onto the deck and were awestruck by the perfectness of the moment – the sound of the waves lapping on the shore, the warm night & cool breeze, and how the moon created a path of light that lead right to the steps of our beach house. Israel pulled all of us into a huddle where he so eloquently described what I’m sure we were all feeling. His exact words escape me, but I recall how they echoed my own sentiments: there was nowhere else in the world I’d rather be than to be with those people – J, Ashley, Israel, Hoyeon & (of course) Reesie – at that exact moment.

There we stood shoulder-to-shoulder or in my case head-to-shoulder (ha!), I was reminded of how truly blessed I am to have amazing people in my life that act like sunshine for my soul.

I don’t know if we’ll ever be able to recreate that special day, but I know that we’ll have many opportunities in the future to try.