Senior beach week is a week seniors look forward to every year. During beach week, the entire senior class drives down to the beach. Seniors spend time with their friends, usually in a rented beach house. Beach week typically takes place immediately after school gets out. With heads cleared after finals, seniors can enjoy a stress free week on vacation. This is a way to celebrate graduation and the completion of finals. It is also a time to spend time with your class before everyone goes to different colleges. However, a lot more goes into beach week than one might think. It truly requires a lot of planning and strategizing to have everything come together. 

The first element that requires planning and a good chunk of time is the acquisition of the beach house. All of the seniors from a certain school typically travel to the same area. This year, South Lakes seniors will be traveling to Corolla, North Carolina. Corolla is about a five and a half hour drive from Reston. There are limited properties available; it is important to try to rent a house a couple months in advance. The properties are also usually too expensive for a small group of people so each house most likely would require at least seven or eight people to split the cost. The complication of finding a group large enough to fill the houses available requires tremendous amounts of planning in advance

Toshi Kenney, senior, explained to me that it “takes a lot of communication” to be able to pick a house with a certain group of people. He continued on to explain how students from each school like to rent houses that are on the same street so these houses fill up extremely fast. His friend group started looking at houses this last summer and they just recently put in their down payment for their property. Toshi’s group decided to nominate one person to organize everyone’s finances. Although it was a lot at first, it helped them speed up the renting process. Another problem his group faced was the strict rules about the number of occupants in each house. The group exceeded their limit so they had to split into two separate houses. Toshi also stated that this whole process has been “more stress than he thought it would be”. 

Seniors, Jinan Asad and Ryan Ertlschweiger focus more on the positives and are extremely hyped for senior beach week. Jinan is looking forward to “hanging out with everyone one last time before everyone goes to college”. Ryan reveals that this experience has taught him the importance of compromise as he stated “beach week teaches lessons on how to live independently”. Also mentioning that this will “be good practice for college”. Seniors are going to be moving to various colleges a couple months after graduation, they have to get used to the feeling of independence and being away from their families. 

In order to rent a property, you have to be at least 24 years of age, meaning it would require a parent or an older sibling to rent out the house. A damage fee is required due to the high risks of leaving a group of teenagers alone in a beach house. The renter’s agreement states that the renter must pay and replace items due to damage. Along with the expense of the house, you also have to think about the cost of driving down there, eating out, groceries, and other toiletries. This week may be more expensive than you think. If you don’t already have a property, I recommend and encourage you to start looking!