"No place like home for the holidays."
_ Various

Finals are long gone and I could not be any happier. It definitely was a stressful time, but it is now over and I can relax on academics for now. We spent December 15 through 20 in Myrtle Beach, S.C., and I had a blast.

We left Saturday afternoon after a short practice. We all showered and loaded our stuff on the charter bus, then left for the beach. It is not really a long trip so we took a charter bus all the way down. It was about a four-hour trip so, we ate at Ryan’s around the North Carolina and South Carolina border. I personally love Ryan’s. It is nothing but a huge buffet and you eat as much as you want. After we were all done, we were off again with just a few hours to go.

Finally game day and we are on our way to Conway, S.C., which is about a twenty minute drive from Myrtle Beach. Coastal has a smaller gym and it was packed on that Monday night. Coastal played very well and they had a really good crowd behind them. We played a little bit rusty because we had not played in a while, but we still came out with the win. Now back to the hotel for some food and a much-needed shower.

Tuesday morning seemed to come so fast. It was like I had just fallen asleep and then it was time to get right back up. The coaches make sure you are not up talking on your phone all night. They want you to get the rest that you need, so they have a simple solution. At curfew, you get your phone taken away. Every night at 11:30, Coach Smith came around with an open Santa bag and you knew to just put your phone in there. We got our phones back after breakfast and film the morning. We had practice at Myrtle Beach High School around 11:00 that morning. What was weird to me was the fact that we were practicing while the physical education class sat there and watched us. That was a first for me. If we did something good you could hear them making comments and the typical oh’s and ahs.

On Tuesday night, a couple of us decided we would chase some seagulls. I believe it was Iman McFarland, Heather Claytor, Laura Barry, Cetera Degraffenried, Cat Greene, Brianna Carbonell and of course me. Every night there would be hundreds and hundreds of them sitting on the beach and on top of the water. So, we ran our there and chased them and then started taking pictures and enjoying the beach. I loved it!

The ball was tipped and Western scored on the tip play we usually do. That was OK because we came back and started our attack. We kept increasing on our lead and working on the things that needed to be worked on. All sixteen high school teams were there to watch us play. They were all really excited and you could tell by the way they were screaming. We ended up winning 93-60. After the game I got to meet with my friends from Western. It took a while to get to them because we had a crowd of girls outside of our locker room wanting autographs. I said good bye to all teammates, friends and fans and I headed back to Chapel Hill with my dad.

We got only three hours of sleep Thursday night because we were leaving early for Kentucky Friday morning. We were excited to be going home for the holidays. Christmas is my favorite time of the year and I am glad I had a little break to go home. We had to be back on the 27th for practice. It doesn’t seem like a long break, but you will learn to take what you can get. I am thankful for anything that comes my way! I’m back in Chapel Hill now and I am ready to start working hard again.

I hope everyone had a Happy Holiday and found it to be relaxing and full of joy.

"Proper prior preparation prevents poor performance."
_ Sylvia Hatchell

Stay cool and keep ballin’ ya’ll!

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