What happened that day?

A short piece I've finally written after taking a hiatus from casual writing. This short blog describes an eventful day trip during the Winter Break of 2022.

photo by Josh Harrison on Unsplash

I opened my eyes to the familiar sound of my alarm. It was the same melody that had successfully woke me up for the past two quarters at UCLA. But other than that, everything felt different. The bedsheet was rougher than usual and the pillow underneath my head felt uncomfortably soft. As I glanced around the unfamiliar room with my half-opened eyes, my mind finally caught up to the present. I wasn’t in my dorm, but instead I was in a hotel in San Diego.

That day was the first day of Winter Break. This trip to San Diego was planned over a year ago and was supposed to happen during the Spring Break of 2020 before the world went into chaos over Covid-19. My roommate, who happened to have just finished a ridiculous 8-hour final the night before, was still dead asleep on the bed next to me. His awkward sleeping position told me that he didn’t get a goodnight sleep either, probably because of the rough bedsheet and the extra soft pillow that makes your head sink into the abyss.

The time on my watch read 11:00am. I had no intention of waking my roommate up, but considering how full our agenda was, we couldn’t waste anymore of the precious daylight that seemed to disappear at an unreasonable time now.

Our day officially started when we got to Petco Park around 12:00pm for the tour. I am a huge fan of baseball but have never been to a baseball park. Mainly because I’m the only person in my family who finds enjoyment in watching people throwing and hacking away at a ball with a bat. The tour was like any other ordinary tour that consisted of a guide who never seemed to run out of things to talk about for two hours straight. The history and the legacy of the San Diego Padres were cool, but I was mostly excited for the experience of stepping onto the baseball diamond. The reddish-brown dirt underneath my shoes. The yellow foul poles standing tall in the distance. I could almost hear the cheer of the imaginary crowd. This lasted for about three seconds before the loud sound of the microphone from the guide interpreted my daydream.

Next stop was Coronado Island, where we spent the rest of our late afternoon trying to fit in. Crossing the Coronado bridge was like entering Narnia from the wardrobe. The place seemed surreal with all the flashy Christmas lights covering all corners of the island and the iconic Coronado Hotel in the center of it all. Everyone around us was wearing expensive designer clothes, meanwhile, my roommate and I were wearing joggers, hoodies, and Crocs. Despite the fact that we were practically a walking meme, the place was beautiful. When the sun finally sat behind the horizon, Christmas spirit rose and filled the atmosphere with joy and laughter. Before we left San Diego, we made our way towards the beach, leaving all the lights, people, and sound behind us. While standing on top of the sand, we looked towards the faint orange glow where the sun was before setting behind the ocean waves and reflected on 2021. That day was a beautiful start to our Winter Break and an even better end to the quarter. As we each went home completely exhausted, there were only two things on our mind: a nice bed sheet and a comfortable pillow.