Can a Vacation Spot Really Be “Yours”?

So every summer I hear the same comments, albeit from different people regarding different vacation spots:

“So good to be back home! This is our spot!”  

Keep in mind people could be talking about the Dominican Republic, Myrtle Beach, Oak Island, Virginia Beach, the Outer Banks, or several locations on the coast of Florida, Georgia, Texas or God-knows-where.

Listen, I understand that people grow fond of a location. After all, they spend a week there doing nothing but relaxing, swimming and going out to eat at seafood restaurants, what’s not to like? It’s perfect. For a week or more they get to sleep in, eat like a pig, and do nothing but live the dream. Hey, you get attached to a place. What’s not to like?

Still, I find it interesting that people like to claim a vacation spot as their own. It’s as if they feel a need to lay claim to a place, and are almost protective of it. And I guess, in a way, I do the same thing.

Here’s an example. Back in 1978, my sister, her husband and I first began going to a little out of the way (then at least) place called Oak Island, NC. Hey, back then I didn’t know anyone else who went there on vacation. Now, not so much. Tons of people I know go there, and some of them have declared it “their” second home. And you know what? That’s fine. I know exactly how they feel, because I’ve felt the same way for years. I feel the exact same way about the Outer Banks, because I spent my summers there from 1992-2011. Does it seem like a second home? It does. It also feels that way to thousands of other people who vacation there, and for good reason.

I’m not 100% sure what I’m trying to say here, other than it’s sort of dumb to try and declare a piece of land as “yours.” It’s not possible. No matter how much you love it, unless you own the whole shebang, it belongs to everybody.

Sorry kids, but it’s the truth.

This sort of reminds me of the way people lay claim to certain rock bands. “That’s my band! I listened to them when nobody had heard of them!” Then, when everyone else discovers them, you feel as if you’ve been cheated on. You wish you could go back to the days when nobody else knew their music, just like that one special beach you thought was all yours.

Sadly, it isn’t. And honestly, in reality it never was.