Cruise Trip

Another pointless day had gone by. Day after day, Jack felt his life was the same. He woke up every morning at 6 am, took a shower, put on a suit, brushed his teeth, and by 7:30 he was off on his commute.

Jack worked as a manual un-subscriber for a clothing company. The company would send out promotional emails to customers on a mailing list, and when someone decided to unsubscribe from the mailing list, Jack had to manually go in and take them off the list. Every day, he would come in from the same drive, sit at the same desk, see the same people in the same office, and do the same thing. After eight years of doing this, Jack was stuck in a rut.

Feeling he needed a break from the norm, Jack decided to go for a walk and ponder what he should do.

"Should I quit my job? Should I move closer to the office? Should I tell my boss I need something new?" Jack thought as he walked around his office.

While on his walk, Jack saw something. There was an ad posted in a store window for a deal on cruise tickets.

"This could be perfect, just enough time to get my mind off things and break the rut. Maybe a week on a cruise can break my everyday schedule, even if it were for just a week." Jack thought to himself as he approached the ticket counter.

Jack walked up to the woman at the front desk, and without hesitating bought four tickets, not sure who the three extras were for, just with the hope that someone would want to come along with him.

After putting some thought into it, Jack decided to call up a couple of his old buddies from college and see if they wanted to join him. After some hit and misses, and most of his old buddies saying they can't just leave their wife and kids for a week, Jack found two other people. Struggling to find his third, Jack broke down and called his one friend he was wary about calling in the first place, Daniel.

Daniel was a bit crazy, his life was all over the place and he never seemed to find stability. In college, he was always the drunkest and wildest person around, causing chaos everywhere he went. Jack knew Daniel would come, he just wasn't sure how spending a week with him in the open seas would be, now that he is in his mid-thirties.

Without hesitation, Daniel jumped on the invite from Jack. He was ecstatic, he couldn't wait to catch up with old buddies and of course, he had nothing going on.

The cruise was planned for July 30th, and Jack bought all the tickets on April 28th, leaving him some time for something to look forward to while at work. Now, he woke up with a smile, knowing every day he was that much closer to his break from the norm. Counting down the days, he was finally getting closer.

The morning of July 29th rolled around, and Jack woke with excitement. It was probably the most enthusiastic and productive he had ever been at work, and he couldn't wait for tomorrow to roll around, even though he knew as soon as it was over, he was back to life with nothing to look forward to and back to the daily grind.

The day was finally here, Jack picked up his buddies from their homes and rounded everyone up for the big week. He arrived at Daniel's, who stated he would be 30 minutes late as he was still drunk from the night before. Noticing he was already off to a rough start, Jack picked up Daniel reluctantly, however, he thought "Maybe I need this. Maybe this is the wildcard I need in my life, maybe I do actually need someone like Daniel to make things interesting."

After waiting for Daniel for a little bit, the group was off to the port to board the ship. Once boarding, Jack arranged the rooms with the front desk, only to learn he would be rooming with Daniel for the week. As disappointed as Jack was, he knew there was nothing he could do about it as the other two friends he had brought packed their bags together, and had requested to stay together. Not letting anything bring down his week off, Jack decided to make the best out of the situation.