Every summer, many newly graduated seniors travel to the shore for a beach vacation to relax and to spend time with friends before everyone goes off to college.  And at NA, one particular destination is a clear favorite.

Ocean City, a resort town between the Atlantic Ocean and Isle of Wight Bay, attracts many NASH seniors due to its affordable prices, boardwalk restaurants, beaches, and theme park attractions. 

For most, “sweek,” or senior week, is in celebration of graduating high school and spending quality time with friends before parting ways.

The week-long trip involves significant planning, causing many to begin making arrangements months in advance. Seniors Briona Rice, Bella Falo, Ava Hutchinson, Josh Ruppert, and Connor Smith have all started planning their trips, despite the fact graduation is over three months away. 

Falo and her group of ten have been looking forward to this week since freshman year. 

“I am excited to boogie board and to spend time with my friends on the beach before college,” she said. “We started planning around August.”

Students usually rent with a group of friends to cut costs, but it’s not always easy.

“The hardest part of planning all of this was getting everyone in the group to pay, as well as convincing my parents to let me go,” senior Josh Ruppert explained. “They said no at first, but they realized it is probably my last time seeing some of my friends before leaving for college, so they agreed.”

This year, most NA seniors who are planning their sweek in Ocean City are set on the week of June 4-11. However, senior baseball player Connor Smith and his friends on the team are booked for late June into early July.

“It was hard to know when to book because I am not sure when the baseball season will finish, so my group had to book several weeks after school ended, which was hard to convince our group to do.”

Houses in Ocean City during the first week of summer tend to book quickly due to the number of graduated high school students looking for a vacation. It is best to rent a house months in advance in order to secure one that is clean, affordable, and in a good location. 

Senior Briona Rice and her group of 15 found just the place.

“My group started planning in September because we wanted to find an affordable, safe, and nice house we could all agree on,” Rice said. “Also, we did not want to take the chances of not getting a house at all since houses booked up quickly.”

For these seniors and many others, Ocean City, Maryland is the place to be as soon as school lets out. And while it may be a bittersweet farewell to life before college, it’s sure to be sun-drenched and fun-filled.