A Week In LA With Ball State Media

On the last day of our Spring Break trip to Los Angeles, literal hours before taking off on our flight back to Indiana, I found myself standing on the beach next to Santa Monica Pier, thinking how on Earth I would properly convey the depth of this experience. Days later I will come to find out that while I stood still, though my mind was running laps at Mach speed, my friends were taking photos and videos of me. You see, I'm not the most technically advanced media student, so I was the only one on the trip devoted to those going into film and television not capturing the sunset with a camera. My friends were running the length of the beach, getting time lapses and point-of-view shots. They took photos of the vibrant pinks and purples behind the mountains, behind the pier, over the ocean. They laughed and ran and cried and hugged. And I watched as we all savored our last few sips of the life we'd dreamed of for so long, lucky enough to be surrounded by the most genuine, caring, and funny people we could ask for. If I could bottle up that feeling I wouldn't have to be a writer, or beg a friend to work the camera on projects I want to direct. But I paint pictures with words instead of pixels. The photos are here, and so are the best words I could come up with.

The Mushroom Cloud On The Beach in Santa Monica (12 Injured)

It is a distinctly unique feeling

to connect with new friends

like atoms colliding.

To be thrown together in one moment

and, only through your combined power,

to set the world on fire.

So to my fellow atoms,

be sure to watch

as the blazing tendrils of knowledge, and experience,

love, and laughter

weave their way through the sand,

tangle into the sunbeams

and connect us all together

to this moment.

So that in years to come

we may return to this beach

and watch an identical sunset,

and see the crater in the earth

that whispers

Remember who you came from?

What started it all was

a week that gave you endless opportunity

and choices and support.

A week that held laughter and tears

and tired eyes but beneath the brightest smiles.

A week that took a weight off your shoulders.

All thanks to friends

who quickly became family

in a mushroom cloud of

cramped cars and layovers.

Stare at that crater that sent us careening into the rest of our lives

and remember the atoms that caused it.

Remember who you came from?