Summer vacation: a time of relaxation, no studying and being back home with loved ones. However, peers leave their friends behind for four months as students travel home for summer. To ease the pain of being apart from these friends, students visited their peers’ hometowns and got a glimpse of their lives outside of Malibu.
Sophomore Adrianne Mercado experienced two new adventures this summer: exploring New York City for the first time and visiting one of her closest Pepperdine friends, sophomore Bardalis Sanchez Jimenez, in her hometown.
Mercado and Sanchez Jimenez spent four days together wandering around the city. Each day was full of intent, as Sanchez Jimenez prepared a full itinerary for the visit and made sure they covered everything, Mercado said.
“Being my first visit to the city, Bard was really focused on making sure I saw things I wanted to,” Mercado said. “She took me to the Brooklyn Bridge, the Met, everything related to Spider-Man and other TV show and movie scenes that I appreciated a lot.”
Yet Mercado and Sanchez Jimenez were not the only ones to reconnect outside of Malibu in the summer.
Sophomore Gabby Cabai said she spent a lot of her time her first year at Pepperdine with her suitemate and close friend, sophomore Lacey Reedy. Upon arriving home to Florida this summer, Cabai experienced a dramatic shift in her day-to-day lifestyle.
“Pepperdine definitely has a slower lifestyle for me,” Cabai said. “Even though I am very busy at Pepperdine, it was an eye-opening moment for me to be home again, especially away from the people I was closest to.”
Out of all her Pepperdine friends, Cabai said Reedy is one of the only people she knows who lives on the East Coast. This made arranging a visit much easier, as the drive from her hometown of Fort Myers, Florida to Reedy’s home in Saint Simons Island, Georgia was roughly 6 hours, Cabai said.
“I told Lacey, ‘I need to see you,’ and she said, ‘I think you need to come here,’” Cabai said. “So I got in the car, drove six hours and got to see her for a weekend.”
Despite N.Y.C. being her hometown, Sanchez Jimenez also faced new experiences while Mercado paid her a visit.
“We also tried new things together, from a thrift shop and bakery in Brooklyn to the Top of the Rock at Rockefeller Center,” Mercado said.
Although there are countless historical landmarks and famous sights to see in N.Y.C., Mercado said her favorite part of the trip was seeing Sanchez Jimenez in her world outside of Pepperdine.
“It was exciting to see how Bard was in the Bronx, in her element, speaking Spanish, enjoying Dominican food, explaining the subway,” Mercado said. “My ultimate favorite part from the trip was the home-cooked food and the love I felt being welcomed into her home.”
Similar to Mercado, Cabai said it was heartwarming to get a glimpse into Reedy’s life and to meet the people who love her, such as her friends and family.
“It makes so much sense why Lacey is as wonderful and awesome as she is,” Cabai said. “To be raised in such a wonderful environment like that, how could you not turn out as awesome and wonderful as Lacey Reedy?”
Reedy feels the same toward Cabai, as she said she planned Cabai’s visit around her bright and bubbly personality.
“To love Gabby is to know she is always down for an adventure, will never turn down a coffee and is ready to soak up the Southern sun,” Reedy said. “It was with these things in mind that I made it my goal to show Gabby the sweet little spots that I hoped would make her feel the same warmth that radiates from her presence.”
Cabai and Reedy spent their days in the scorching sun at the beach, eating delicious Italian food, drinking lattes and beating the heat with frozen yogurt. Yet, it was a different moment that Cabai will remember most from her trip.
“Lacey wanted me to meet her grandparents, who she’s really close with and looks up to,” Cabai said. “It definitely gave me more of a perspective and more intimacy in our friendship that you can’t get at school.”
All four students’ encounters with their friends allowed for their friendships to encounter deeper levels outside of their familiar Malibu scene.
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Contact Amanda Monahan via email: amanda.monahan@pepperdine.edu
