Sometimes you look back on the simplest moments in life and realize you want to go back. You realize the time went by too quickly and you need another chance at the time you passed by.

My sister leaves today for her first college spring break, so naturally I thought of spring breaks past. That’s when I found myself laughing until I cried about my sophomore year of high school spring break.

My parents took on the task of taking my friend, my sister and me to Panama City Beach for a few days. We were staying at the Holiday Inn Sunspree, because my dad had points there and it seemed like a perfectly good place to stay. When we arrived, we were immediately greeted by college students and blaring music. Needless to say my mom was displeased, but my friend and I thought it was so cool.

We got wristbands to go on the beach, but my sister wasn’t allowed out there without parental supervision. There was a stage and some surprising contests going on.

The college kids were dancing in their bathing suits, but we had only been to homecoming dances, where you had to sign waivers about inappropriate dancing, so our skills were lacking. We decided to return to the pool area, where you could get henna tattoos. All the older kids had real tattoos, but this was the best we could do. My mom was horrified at the thought of us getting even a henna, but we begged. Eventually, I ended up with a butterfly on my hip. It was very ~trendy~ We went back to our room to eat lunch while our tattoos settled, which was when something even cooler than our tattoos happened. Two boys a few balconies down asked us to come hang out. We were like “yeah!!!” We walked inside, only for my mom to say “no!” In her defense, she was older and wiser and probably knew college guys were not interested in us coming over to watch Zoey 101 with them. She knew we were disappointed, but she promised us we could go to Pineapple Willy’s for dinner that night.

We instantly forgot about our neighbors and were excited again. That night we went to dinner and got our virgin daiquiris, because again we were desperate to be older and thought this showed our age.

The final day of the trip came, and the stage was passing out tshirts. Although we didn’t participate in any contests, we still caught one of the shirts. We took it back to the room and pulled it out to wear home the next day. My mom almost croaked. It had a saying on it, but we didn’t even know what the saying meant. We just thought it was a cool shirt. My mom threw a jacket over me, while I attempted to show off my shirt.

When we arrived home, they explained to my friend’s mom what happened. Her parents thought it was hysterical how naïve and innocent we were.

I guess I wish I could go back to that time, when the biggest issue in life was what cool henna tattoo you would get. I feel like now the issues are so much more intense and the spring breaks have escalated to a level I could never be ready for.

As your break approaches, enjoy it and don’t be someone you’re not. Don’t try to be older, because you’ll end up in some cringe worthy shirt and be your parent’s running joke. Be yourself and have fun; you’ll look back and laugh at what happens.