[Love: My City & Me] 15 Years Later…and I’m still on Spring Break by Kellie Wilson I was never on Spring Break in the Joe Francis / Girls Gone Wild sense. When I first came down to Barbados my Senior year of college most of my friends were in Cabo or Panama City or at a Senor Frogs somewhere doing body shots of tequila with guys in board shorts. I’m sure it was fun, but that just wasn’t me. I came down to Barbados to truly relax - lay on the sand. Do a bit of diving. Sleep too late. Eat far too much. To celebrate my collegiate freedom - the same freedom I took for granted until the reality of the real world and a 9 to 5 life behind a desk (my seemingly inevitable future as a finance major) hit. I’m still here. I fell in love on that Spring Break. He was tall and Scottish and pale compared to his fellow Islanders. He didn’t seem to really belong at the time although now I can’t imagine either of us being anywhere else. I know it sounds so cliche or that I am naive but I just knew. Knew he was the one, knew that as soon as I met him, there I belonged. My city is small and at times rural and primitive, at times luxurious and extravagant. It has the most beautiful sunrise and sunset. Its weather keeps me warm, its breeze makes me feel safe…and at ease. Just because it is island life doesn’t mean it is without worry. My husband and I fight just like you do (or will) with yours. We worry about money and making ends meet, and when the clouds will yield that ray of light that we need to make it through a rough day. But this city is my home. Carried there by wind and a fierce determination to have one last relaxing hurrah, I feel so blessed that this hurrah has lasted 15 years and counting. I still wake up and look out at the beach below my  bedroom window and feel like I am in some kind of dream….and maybe I am. Maybe we all are. Maybe it is true and life is but a never ending dream. I know that the happiness I feel in my heart is shared with many others - those of us who find this deep bravery somewhere within us that we didn’t even know existed. The bravery that pushes us out in a limb…and into the life we never believed we would be lucky enough to have. I want to hear (and share!) your City stories. Send them to me here.

[Love: My City & Me] 15 Years Later…and I’m still on Spring Break

by Kellie Wilson

I was never on Spring Break in the Joe Francis / Girls Gone Wild sense. When I first came down to Barbados my Senior year of college most of my friends were in Cabo or Panama City or at a Senor Frogs somewhere doing body shots of tequila with guys in board shorts. I’m sure it was fun, but that just wasn’t me.

I came down to Barbados to truly relax - lay on the sand. Do a bit of diving. Sleep too late. Eat far too much. To celebrate my collegiate freedom - the same freedom I took for granted until the reality of the real world and a 9 to 5 life behind a desk (my seemingly inevitable future as a finance major) hit.

I’m still here. I fell in love on that Spring Break. He was tall and Scottish and pale compared to his fellow Islanders. He didn’t seem to really belong at the time although now I can’t imagine either of us being anywhere else.

I know it sounds so cliche or that I am naive but I just knew. Knew he was the one, knew that as soon as I met him, there I belonged.

My city is small and at times rural and primitive, at times luxurious and extravagant. It has the most beautiful sunrise and sunset. Its weather keeps me warm, its breeze makes me feel safe…and at ease.

Just because it is island life doesn’t mean it is without worry. My husband and I fight just like you do (or will) with yours. We worry about money and making ends meet, and when the clouds will yield that ray of light that we need to make it through a rough day.

But this city is my home. Carried there by wind and a fierce determination to have one last relaxing hurrah, I feel so blessed that this hurrah has lasted 15 years and counting.

I still wake up and look out at the beach below my  bedroom window and feel like I am in some kind of dream….and maybe I am. Maybe we all are. Maybe it is true and life is but a never ending dream. I know that the happiness I feel in my heart is shared with many others - those of us who find this deep bravery somewhere within us that we didn’t even know existed. The bravery that pushes us out in a limb…and into the life we never believed we would be lucky enough to have.

I want to hear (and share!) your City stories. Send them to me here.