Finding Tatum’s Purpose: Summer Trips to California

This summer has gone by so fast and I can’t believe it’s over. I started off my summer in the happiest place on Earth: Disneyland!

As soon as graduation was over, my senior class piled onto several charter buses and went to Disneyland for our senior trip. We drove all night, and the ride there was honestly one of the worst car rides I have ever been on.

Every student was in a group with a chaperone, and each group was assigned a bus. Each student had the opportunity to decide what group he or she wanted to be in so that we could be with our friends on the bus ride. This made the drive to California a lot of fun, except for the fact that the bus my friends and I were on had no AC. It was a hot and sticky six-hour drive. We had to prop open the escape hatch on the top of the bus just to get some ventilation, but we got there safely, and that’s really all that matters.

My friends and I rode rides all day, ate lots of candy and talked about how none of us felt like we had just graduated high school. It was a really cool experience to be able to share the trip with my friends. Luckily, by the time we had to leave Disneyland to go back home, the AC had been fixed. There was no temperature control, so it was a nice and cool 55 degrees all the way home.

Throughout the summer, I’ve been going to California with my sister and either my mom or dad. She plays softball on a club team and they travel often for tournaments. I love traveling, so whenever my sister or brother has a tournament in another state, I like to go too. If everyone in my family is able to go, then we turn a tournament into a family trip.

One family trip that we go on every summer is to San Diego. And when I say “family trip,” I mean my entire family. My dad has six sisters and every summer at the end of July, all of my aunts, uncles, most of my cousins and my dad’s parents all go to San Diego to stay in cottages on a pier over the ocean. We take up almost an entire side of the pier. I look forward to this trip every year and this year is no different. I had an unbelievable time with my family. We went to the beach almost every day, swam in the ocean, went shopping and hung out late at each other’s cottages every night.

College is coming sooner than I anticipated. I have most of my things ready for school, but there’s also a lot of stuff that I still have to get done. I still need to go through my clothes and decide what I need to take and what needs to stay at home.

I also need to prepare myself too. I tend to get very nervous when I’m experiencing something that is new and college is definitely something like that. I’m scared to be living away from my family. I’m very close to each family member and it’s hard to imagine myself not being around each of them.

I’m also nervous for my classes. I have no idea what to expect, as far as classwork goes, for college. I’m worried my classes are going to be hard and that I’m not going to be able to handle it. Although I’m scared, I’m also excited. I’m excited to meet new people, get involved in activities and clubs, go to church on campus and work toward my career. Being able to go to school to work toward my future is amazing and thrilling to me. College is definitely going to be scary, but with my family and friends by my side, it makes the unknown a little less scary.

Follow my GCU journey on the blog – I’ll be posting here every few weeks.