Seventeen years old and straight out of university admission exams, I embarked with my friends on a well-deserved trip to the Black Sea. Not knowing if I got accepted did not hinder my joy of being done with it all. It’s been excruciating to prepare with many hours of late-night studying throughout the entire highschool. 

At the time, university studies in Romania were free for those that passed the admission exams. Some of the fiercest competition was getting into the country’s only architecture school.

After a two-hour train ride, my friends and I hopped off, waived a cab and crowded in with laughter and excitement. We were all in the same boat. We did not know what the future held, but now it was all about the beach.

We got to the hotel, and as soon as the cab left and we searched for our IDs, Martin noticed he had forgotten a small but essential backpack in the car. Everyone but me panicked. Endless scenarios were concocted. Everything was considered: pooling help money, scheduled bathing suit access, bribing the hotel manager to let him stay with us.

And then I offered nonchalantly: ‘Can we not just call the cab company to find out who the driver with this destination was?’

For me, living creatively and thinking outside the box started with a little bit of whimsy, a good presence of mind and, not the least, the scented air of many a summer night of friendship and laughter.