People love other special people, or they love special pets. However, a lot of people have special places that they love, and that has a value to them more than just a vacation spot. Some people love where they first met their spouse, or where they proposed, or where they spent their life growing up, but that special place to me is Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. This beach, and this area, is much more than a location to go spend a week on vacation, to me at least, and that is because it is the place that truly tied my family together.
My family today is usually together every weekend, and we are always helping each other; we do practically everything together. However, it is not just the six people in my family that I’m referring to, but the twenty cousins, aunts, and uncles on my mom’s side of the family. I have seven cousins, three uncles, and four aunts, and there are also four dogs to add on. Again, today we get together every weekend for hours and hours, and I love hanging out with my cousins. However, it was not always like this, and I have Myrtle Beach to thank because now it is.

Back in the day, my family was not nearly as banded as we are today. We used to be our own small families, and keep out of each other’s business. However, one day my Uncle Mike decided that the twenty of us, only eighteen of us at the time, my two little cousins had not been born yet, should all go on a family vacation together to Myrtle Beach. This sounds harmless, but it changed my life forever. He said that the eighteen of us should all pitch in and rent a house and drive down to Myrtle Beach together for a week. Obviously at the time, everyone was a bit surprised, but I thank God that they all agreed. The adults in my family worked everything out, like which house to rent and where, and what we were going to eat and how we were going to bring down food and get all of our luggage to the house, and the week finally came. We all packed up our suitcases, got in our cars and drove down to Myrtle Beach together. The ride down was going to be fourteen hours, and to make it a little better the adults planned cars for the kids, and we were paired with our cousins so that we could have some fun and bonding time on the way down.

When the seemingly interminable car ride ended, we all got out and the week began. The house that the adults had rented was absolutely gorgeous. It had a huge family room in the middle of the house, with a TV and couches and a kitchen on the side. There was also a deck connected to the deck, which lead down to the backyard, which had its own swimming pool and hot tub, and a little path that lead to the beach. Off of the spacious living room, there were hallways with all the bedrooms, which each had a couple twin beds for the kids, and separate rooms with full size beds for adults. Under the family room, in the basement, there was a game room, which had a pool table, a foosball table, and an air hockey table.

Living together in that house with my whole family was probably the best week of my life, and I think it was everyone else’s in my family too. The whole week we spent time together relaxing on the beach, and going out to dinner together, and just enjoying each other’s company together in one big house. At night we would even go out with our uncles and light fireworks on the beach, and then go back and watch them from the deck. I still have so many fun memories of my first trip there, such as riding waves with my dad on a boogie board, or lighting fireworks on the beach with my uncles, or even spending the day walking around the beach looking for shark teeth with my dad and uncles. I could go on and on, but I would never end, because that is how great Myrtle Beach was. The week we spent laughing and playing board games and cards, and enjoying ourselves on vacation, but to us, to me at least it was much more than a vacation. It was a bonding experience. It was the glue that was starting to form in one of the most important aspects of anyone’s life: family. After the week was over on the beautiful beaches, it was back to work, and that was when everyone started to realize the great time they had, and the fact that we needed to do it more often.

A simple trip to the sand in South Carolina brought my family together, and it is probably the most important place in my life. My family loved the vacation together that now we do it every summer, except since there are more people and animals we have transferred to OBX, North Carolina, which is pet friendly. South Carolina and the beautiful area of Myrtle Beach has really brought my family together, and I have to thank it for everything that it has done, and now I believe I can finally say that it not only has shaped my life, but it has given it joy, and a great experience as well, and that is what life is about.