Although I’ve been out of school now for five years (holy moly, time flies), I’ll always hold onto those university and college days.

My favourite age has to be hands-down when I was 19. I had my girl crew, there were three of us, we all went to high school together and although we weren’t close back then, for some reason we reconnected when we were 18, and by the time we were 19 we were pretty much inseparable. Seriously, we would hang out pretty much everyday. Whether it was at one girl’s pool, or shopping trips, or just plain chilling at one of our houses, we were like those three best friends you see in the movies.

The summer of my 19^th year was a blast. I took spring courses at the University of Winnipeg and remember busing home, with my iPod original (you know, the one with the wheel? #retro) listening to hipster “I listened to them before they were famous” music and late 2000s hip hop (Shorty got them Apple Bottom jeans…). All that was on my mind was the excitement for getting ready for the night, pregame, and hitting the club with my squad (we always went to the same nightclub every Friday night, the bouncers even knew us we were there so much).

It was like that every weekend until about July when I got excited to travel to Israel for two weeks. I had a mix of emotions; I’ve never been outside North America before, I was going to a country that for centuries has been torn by war, and pretty much all you see on CNN were the bad things that plagued the land known by many Jews around the world, including myself, as home.

After a summer full of pool parties, club nights, weeknight deck hang outs and more, I embarked on my first overseas trip (one of the most amazing, eye-opening trips I’ve ever been on), with my squad seeing me off at the airport, signs and all.

Although I’m not as close with those two girls anymore, I’ll never forget that summer. In fact whenever I hear Nelly Furtado’s Promiscuous Girl and have a Dirty Hooker shot, it transports me back, eight years ago to those carefree days when life’s biggest problems were getting that essay done in time and what outfit I would wear that upcoming Friday night.

Sour Puss is proud to partner with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Canada, in celebration of squads everywhere. For every unique (and tasteful) picture or video you post on Instagram or Twitter of you and your crew, tag #Squad & @SourPussCA and we’ll donate $1 to Big Brothers Big Sisters of Canada! Instagram: @sourpussca Facebook: facebook.com/sourpuss

Disclosure: This post was brought to you by Corby Spirit and Wine via Mode Media Canada. The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and are not indicative of the opinions or positions of Corby Spirit and Wine.