Decade Of Excellence: The Best Spring Break Story Ever Part 1

“Four young gentlemen need car for Spring Break Tour of the South. Will pay $$$”

As I finished typing my classified I was in desperate need of escape.

I was in the middle of joining a fraternity, my girl friend had just broken up with me, and I had become the youngest student in school history to be awarded an independent studio but also had the added responsibility of producing lots of work outside of my classes. I had started a slam poetry club with Rush and still had my responsibilities to student government as a freshmen senator. I was the definition of overextended.

The reason why I had stretched myself so thin was that I had a vision of “being collegiate”. And nothing, I decided, was more collegiate than taking a Spring Break road trip. I convinced some friends, Rush, Tom, and Joel, that this is exactly what we should do for Spring Break. The only problem was that we didn’t have a car, or a place to stay, or much money. And unfortunately for us – even after my wonderfully worded ad, when the bell rang Friday signaling the start of Spring Break, we still didn’t have a car, a place to stay, or much money. Tom and Joel decided that the ship was sinking and simply went home for break. Rush and I didn’t have that luxury and were stuck at college.

Being the last person on campus is a really disconcerting feeling. What is normally a bustling; loud, happy place becomes a tomb. Spending my first Spring Break in my dorm room was not the collegiate experience or the escape I had in mind. After Rush met up with me in my room, we did what every human being does in trouble: we began to spread tale of our misery.

Rush made the first call to a friend who went to our college who had gone up to New York for Spring Break. As he told our story, she reminded him that she was from Florida and that her Dad owned beach cottages outside of Tampa. Within minutes she had called her father and arranged for us to stay at one of the cottages for free for a few days. Simultaneously I was on the phone with a friend I hadn’t seen in two years. Courtney and I had met at a creative writing camp at Stanford one summer, and I had fallen in love with her. She responded by becoming engaged to another guy she met at the same camp. Now at Princeton, we were great friends and often exchange exploits and stories. As I told her my newest plight Courtney interrupted my story and put me on hold. When she clicked back over she told me she had called her parents and we could stay at her house right outside of Miami.

I was shocked – I had completely forgotten that she was from Florida. Now we had two great places to stay in Florida, but still no car. When God is smiling at you; the best thing to do is smile back. I decided that now was the perfect time to check my email to see if there was a response. As soon as I was logged in I saw I had a new message with the subject: Spring Break Tour Of The South.

I didn’t expect her to be so striking or so tall. In fact, there was something vaguely indestructible about Natalie Pavelock – she seemed like someone you could throw in any part of the world, and she would emerge alright. Most importantly, Natalie had responded to my ad – and we were going to work out the terms of her letting us borrow her car. I told her the plans had changed from a tour of the south to simply going to Florida, and that instead of four of us it was now just two. She was visibly relieved. Heartened by the news she responded that all she needed was a ride to the airport on Monday morning – she was flying to Mexico to join some friends. Natalie didn’t want any money, and didn’t even need us to pick her up from the airport – all she asked was that we didn’t get any tickets or have a wreck. She was my new patron saint. Finally, I had to ask the question I had been dreading since reading her email – what kind of car do you have?

Natalie looked at me and casually replied, “I have a brand new BMW”