4/19

Every once-in-a-while, it’s important to give yourself a break from work and let yourself have fun. I’m a firm believer in working hard and playing hard. At SCAD it’s tempting for students to take advantage of a few mental health days because of the 4-absence policy.

For me, I can’t just skip class and sit on my ass for 2 ½ hours. If I do, I’ll just sit there thinking about what I’m going to miss that day. I don’t do it that often, but when I do skip, it’s because I’ve got something better to do. Well, maybe not better, but justifiable on my own scale.

The day after 04/19/09, I made the decision to skip class and go surfing. I haven’t been getting much exercise recently because of work, school, and other stuff so it seemed like the right thing to do. I thought to myself, “It’ll be good to get away from homework for a few hours to clear my head.” I almost didn’t go, because of my class at 5 p.m.

I was sitting at my computer editing and my phone started ringing. I didn’t answer because it was my buddy Grinch, calling and I had a feeling that he was trying pulling me away from my work to go surfing instead. After the phone stopped ringing I sat there looking at the computer screen for a moment, then decided to call him back.

After two rings he answered, “Hello.”

“What’s up, Grinch?”

“Yo, you want to go surfing? The buoy report said it’s already 4 ½ ft.”

I sat silent for a few seconds, “I don’t know. I have a bunch of work I should do.”

“It should be pretty good,” he says back. “I’m about to go to the gas station. Howe bout I call you after I fill up?”

“Yeah. Just call me back in a few minutes.”

By the time he called back my mind was made up.

After telling Grinch, he said: “Alright! I’ll be there to pick you up in like 5 minutes.”

I hurried around my apartment stuffing my wetsuit, a towel, and some homework that’s due tomorrow into my bag. Then, went through a moment of starring at my boards figuring out which one I was going to bring. I went with the bigger board, thinking I could catch it earlier and get longer rides.

We got out to Tybee Island around 3:30 p.m. then paddled out. Right away, I knew I made the right decision. We drifted from the jetty to the pier 6 times. On days like this at Tybee, you loose the concept of time in the water.

After an hour or so, a storm came over us. It looked like that scene in Independence Day when the aliens first come to earth, but their space ships are hidden behind the giant incoming clouds. Apparently, the rain was worse in Savannah than on Tybee. It actually smoothed out the water and helped clean up some waves. But, the rain only lasted a little over 30 minute, then the sun came out again.

When finally got out of the water and back to car, I realized there was a new voicemail. It was my professor, Adam Davies, who had called at 4:21 p.m. and left me a message. I was halfway out of my wetsuit and class started over an hour ago. It turns out, he was canceling class because he needed to take his girlfriend to the emergency room. The reason he called me, was so I could write a note on the board to let everyone else know that our class had been cancelled.

My bad.

I called him back but didn’t get answer. In the message I left him, I told Adam that I was sorry to hear about his girlfriend then vaguely explained my personal dilemma when it came to writing the note up for him on the board to inform the rest of class. I guess, people ended up waiting a while before giving up on it and leaving.

I felt guilty when hearing about it the next day. I might not have made the most responsible decision that day. But, because it was a holiday that only comes once a year, I’m hoping everyone is understanding of the situation.