Rite of Passage — Partying Jamaican Style

As a Jamaican teenager it is a rite of passage to pack your bags, pile into designated Dave’s car and hit the road for a long party weekend in the country. When I was doing it right, it was either to Ocho Rios or Negril. This meant designing and having a swim suit made (or buying something brand new) for your debut at the best beach party of the weekend, making sure you had at least three outfit options for each party you intended to go to and this way if anything popped up which was not in the plan you were covered. This also meant booking a hotel almost three months in advance as spaces went quite quickly. Being the indecisive, spontaneous and semi-adventurous people my friends are, we were always looking for a place two weeks before and needless to say, we ended up quite a few times in what we liked to call a sh*t-box hotel, but this is what has created lasting memories.

Since no one made a plan and the three 5' girls wanted to hit the road we decided to forget the team and make our own plans. It was already too late to find a hotel so we pulled out all stops and got on praying knees and begged family members to find us a place. We found somewhere alright! — 30 minutes from Ocho Rios town center, up a little hill, a not so perfect one bedroom cottage. We were prewarned — no tv, not luxurious but somewhere to lay your head. We said no problem, we’ll take it! To offset the lack of amenities we packed a laptop and some dvds, our own music and food and well no party was complete without a bottle of rum (or two)!
So let me sum up the first few hours being there — we put in a movie, on the 12" inch screen laptop, huddled on the floor with a glass of rum, listened to music, danced around the cottage, had a massive fright by a lizard the size of Godzilla and then decided we had to hit the club.
We were all exhausted but nothing was going to stop our fun, even if it meant driving 30 minutes to the club to spend 15 minutes and then drive back — We were hitting the streets!

We turned up at the club, walked around a bit to see if we spotted anyone we knew but we didn't so we got our drinks and found a small space in the sardine can right in front of the DJ booth. We were playing it cool, feeling all cute — the DJ told us hey (OK so what if he was in our first year university class and already knew us!). It was almost time to go when we spotted a few guys we were acquainted with, and immediately there was an attraction between one of them and myself. After a few words they asked if we needed to be escorted back to our “hotel” and we said sure! Being the driver and a bit exhausted, it was a welcomed offer as one of them drove my car(I was secretly hoping my crush would have). We got back to the cottage about 3 am and good thing we were escorted, in the night, the place was just a bit more dodgy — poorly lit with a door that couldn't close properly. What’s funny is that the boys seemed a bit more scared than we were! hahaha!

I watched the sun come up while having laughs and great conversation with this random guy with whom there was immediate chemistry. And the brighter it got, the more reality began to set in — It was time for the boys to leave, but there was a problem, it was time for us to leave too! We drove to the country with a place to stay for one night and figured we’d be able to find somewhere else to stay for another two. We told them what our situation was and they invited us to stay at their hotel. Maybe that’s why we ran into the boys that night, the universe opened up and stars aligned for us to create a memorable weekend.

We moved from one sh*t box to another. This time a bigger room but with the rest of our friends, all 12 of us in one room. The fun part was that we had to drive 30 minutes to the new hotel, head back in the direction from which we came to pick up some other friends and then back again, we did this about 3 times. Youthful exuberance, driving an new accord with a v-tec engine feeling like a cool cat on a smooth road, I was in that gas keeping up with my new found crush in his turbo engine car. I was leading thinking I was such a boss but soon I heard, the muffler and gears pulling down, I looked to my right and there he was cruising beside, he waved, laughed and pulled off in front of me.

These are the moments that make a stay-cay fun but remembering sharing a room with eight boys with only three beds and opting to sleep in the car a few times just to get some rest, I remind myself why they say with age comes wisdom. You never eat well, party weekend diet 101 — have as much of your mother’s home cooking before heading out for the weekend — three days without it will feel like famine. Also, as you get to that all inclusive party of food and drinks, head to the food lines first — your next meal after that will more than likely be pan chicken or burger king.

This is what we did three days straight, eat poorly, party hard, spend time with friends, hit the beach, drive around, and make absolute fools of ourselves. I remember I was too exhausted one night to head to the club so I told them all I would catch up later. It was so embarrassing, I drove in a cirlce 5 times trying to find the club. I kept missing the turn. When I eventually got there, everyone was walking out.

This you do two, three times a year for many years if you’d like but three years was quite enough for me. By then, the crowd begins to change but everything else stays the same. I’ve never had much of an attention span for the same things over and over again but I did it. I made my memories and there are tons more like this, soon I’ll tell you about our Montego Bay to Negril trip and shenanigans which took place. Are we better people for having done this, maybe not better but at least we can say we lived.