by Brandon Allen

Created on: January 07, 2009

Most people, including myself take vacations for granted. This Christmas break it changed my life.

Spending a long time before writing this article, I spent a lot of time reading through all the other articles about the best places in the world to vacation.

Many people go all over the states and all over the world to get a taste of the perfect vacation. But I tend to have a different view on vacations.

I spent the last several years, trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life, I took 3 years off of my college life to try and "figure it all out". I moved to the southwestern part of Michigan, a quiet little town not to far from the busy hectic city-life of Chicago, a city that I had found to be one of the most beautiful towns I have ever seen, or remember frankly. That town being Saint Joseph, Michigan.

I realized, after I had moved I found myself completely overwhelmed and I had depleted the entire purpose of moving there. I moved there because it was "the perfect vacation spot", but was it a place I could build a life? Not really.

I moved back home, and I realized I wanted to go back to school, and now I am currently back in school attending school in Indianapolis.

OK, so anyone who is reading this is probably asking themselves where is the top vacation spot? It probably is not where most people would think of, because my best vacation was going back to the family farm and spending December with my family and friends for the holidays.

I never really took it into perspective how lucky of a man I really was until that vacation. Visiting with family, watching my nieces and nephews growing up, relationships changing and developing, my brother Jeremy (now a police officer) and his fiancee planning on their wedding in late May 2009, my younger brother Marc and his girlfriend of almost 5 years planning on moving to Boulder, Colorado and he too plans on going back to school (architectural engineering), My mother and step father progressing in their restaurant, my father and stepmother progressing in their careers as well, my stepmother now a surgical technician who went back to school in her late twenties and now at thirty starting her newly found career.

I remember driving home from the restaurant one night with my stepfather over vacation, driving slowly because of the ice storm that we were experiencing. We were so close to the house that from the top of the hill we could see their house (being my mother and step fathers house) off to the side with the lights

• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5
• Next Page >>