MIAMI

The 48 hours that we spent in Miami are 48 hours that I’ll tell my grandkids about one day.

The first day was all stormy, which for most people would put a real damper on such a brief trip. But to us that just meant we got all of South Beach to ourselves. How often does that happen?! The winds were ridiculous, shooting sand grains at our legs which actually really stung. But we decided to man up and whip off our sweatpants and sweatshirts and run into the waves. The red flags (which specifically mean “danger. do not enter ocean”) were up, but we just laughed and ran in anyways. The waves were STRONG and knocking us around, but never knocking the smiles off our faces. Those are the times that I live for. Making the absolute best out of situations, enjoying the storms. (corny but true).

The next day was sunny and perfect. We walked all around the Wynwood art district and then went straight to the beach for the rest of the day. It was unrecognizable from the empty beach the day before. It was crowded as can be! A drastically different picture. Of course I loved this day, but I almost loved the picture of a big vast beach with only two girls getting murked by waves in the middle of a Miami storm with the red flags up even better. We waited until people started to leave and ran back into the waves as the sun was setting. Once again, big ol smiles on our faces.

After we left the beach, we went back to our hole in the wall air bnb (s/o Felipe, best host ever), showered, and then went to go get some pizza to go and bring it to my secret spot. Back story on the secret spot: the first time I ever went to Miami was earlier this year to visit a boy (eye roll). One day while he was busy working out, I walked around by myself and found this spot. Its where a street turns into a dead end right before the water, and there is a big concrete block that you can sit on and dangle your feet over the edge. In all honesty, I the first time I sat there I thought about how cool it would be to bring him down there one night and just have one of those deep talks about life. But CLEARLY it wasn’t meant to be with him because he never really wanted to check it out when I brought it up. Fast forward to this trip, and my friend Chase thought it sounded like the best idea ever. Note to self: only show your secret spots to friends that will value them as much as you do. So we sat there with our pizza, looking out at the water, and had one of those deep talks about life. Funny how things work out. I remember saying, “Chase, we will literally never have this moment back. We will never again be 22 & 23, in Miami in the middle of November for literally no reason, sitting at this exact spot” and we both got a little sad. But the good kind of sad. The kind where you are trying so hard to soak up a moment and remember the details so that you can store it in your memory forever, but you know that it is fleeting. It is the pure joy of being young and being exactly where we are at, and the pure terror that we are getting older and won’t ever have that exact moment again. We both decided to lay down on the concrete block, hanging out heads upside down over the water instead of our feet. It looked like the city was hanging from the clouds and the ocean was the ground. We laid like that for a few minutes with “Better” by Khalid playing softly in the background, making up an entire fantasy world. Honestly, typing this out doesn’t do the moment any kind of justice. But I think it’s my method of trying to make the moment immortal, so that I don’t forget any of the details. Chase and I both agreed that was our favorite part of the trip.

We didn’t take a lot of pictures during this trip, but we did make a video that makes me smile every time I watch it.

Biggest takeaways from the trip: it’s the simple moments that always mean the most. & when things are going “wrong”, it’s actually going right for you. that unexpected storm might be just what you needed.

Here are some stills from the video:

the view from the infamous concrete block

“Chase, we will literally never have this moment back. We will never again be 22 & 23, in Miami in the middle of November for literally no reason, sitting at this exact spot”

“we both got a little sad. But the good kind of sad. The kind where you are trying so hard to soak up a moment and remember the details so that you can store it in your memory forever, but you know that it is fleeting.”