This past summer I did something that I never thought I would be able to do. I left everyone and everything (yes even my boyfriend and my adorable dog Elly May) to go on an adventure…ALONE. I spent the summer working on Mackinac Island. Now if you have never heard of this amazing place, It is a small island only 3.776 square miles, with an 8 mile coastline located in northern Michigan right before the UP. If you have been to Mackinac I’m sure you know what I mean when I say that this amazing little island is like taking a trip back in time. There are no cars allowed on Mackinac so everyone gets around on bikes or in/on a horse and buggy. The wifi on the island sucked which I found out once I had gotten up there and I thought that it was going to die without it, but it ended up being a blessing.
Now i’ll be honest with you when I first got up there on may 10th I was a little iffy about this place. First of all it was a ghost town. It was still very cold in northern Michigan and the only people that were really there were the islanders who lived there year round and let me tell you the vast majority of them are very mysterious strange beings. I learned to love them though as the summer went on. When I first moved into the big white historic Reed house I was the only one that was there besides my house parents. House dad was in his late 30’s and had a pony tail that went to his bottom and house mom was a shaky meth headed little 24 year old creature (I ended up loving both of them and crying at the end of summer when I had to leave them fyi) This house had a big front porch and about 9 bedrooms. It was located behind a huge white church which I tried to attend every sunday but failed to by about 70%. I started work the next morning and oh my gosh that was just as awful as my house parents!…..at first
okay okay okay I could go on for pages about that summer but I’m going to keep it short and sweet! I ended up meeting the most amazing life long friends and I will probably never experience such an amazing summer again in my lifetime. I have never been to such amazing crazy parties with all different kinds of people from all over the world like Jamaica, Ireland, England, Slovakia, China, and so on. The people that I worked/lived with was the most amazing group of hippies, Jocks, Nerds, Sorority girls, and clowns. We would show up late and hungover to work almost everyday, We made really stupid decisions like jumping in the water and swimming cops or lighting fireworks off, on the grand hotel golf course and almost blew ourselves up. we would pack coolers of beer in our bike baskets and go for long rides around the island and watch the sun set on the water. I never watched telivison and about a quarter way through the summer I ended up breaking my phone. We all broke our phones because life was so carefree on mackinac. I went a month without a phone (thats a long time for me okay!?) I survived though and learned to be able to eat things, see things, do things without having to tweet or instagram a picture of it. We would get off work and all cook dinner and drink together and then go out and play football, soccer, Frisbee and other fun games. We would bike up into the island to the unreal house parties out in the middle of the woods where the police couldn’t find us. we would climb to the highest part of the island and watch the stars and light off fireworks and sing songs by everything from the Rolling Stones to Katy Perry. we would lay on the airport runway which I know is very illegal. At those moments in times though, nothing else mattered except the amazing group of people that I was with. It was honestly the craziest most amazing adventure that I could have imagined. My plan is to go on lot more adventures but I have a feeling nothing will ever compare to this.
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