It’s my son’s senior year of college. And he just celebrated his final Spring Break. However, his version of Spring Break and my version of Spring Break back in the 90s are very different. My Spring Breaks included cruising down to Panama City, FL with Cripper and Sloth, and other friends with cool college nicknames. There, we would waste all our money, party way too hard, drink way too much, lose our hotel deposits, and get shot down by every girl we hit on. Then we would count the days until we could go back next year.

I thank the good Lord every day that my kids both take after their mom more than they do me when it comes to maturity. In fact, when my son graduates next month, he and his sister will have spent less time earning their degrees COMBINED than I did earning mine. They will finish in six years total. It took me two years longer to end my journey.

Tyler called to tell me that Spring Break was coming up and that he and three of his buddies, Cole, Ben, and Enrique were going to get out of town for the weekend. My first thought was a memory of my last Spring Break, beer-bonging with Ugly Kid Joe. That’s right…my one brush with a one-hit-wonder celebrity. Then I quickly remembered this was not my son’s style. So, I asked where they were heading. He said, “Washington D.C.”

Okay, I thought. That’s cool. He and his friends want to become a little more well-rounded, take in some culture, visit a few museums. Not my scene at that age, but hey, to each their own. I soon found out that was not why they wanted to go to D.C. It turns out it wasn’t to scale the Washington Monument. It wasn’t to get a selfie in front of the Lincoln Memorial. It wasn’t to check out the now-blooming cherry blossoms. It turns out that they had another college friend who was going to be running his first marathon in downtown D.C. that day. And they wanted to show up to support him.

That is friendship. That is loyalty. That is sacrifice. These guys could have gone anywhere and done anything as their last adventure together. Yet they chose to show up and encourage a friend. To say I am proud of these young men is an understatement. To say I learned a valuable lesson from these dudes is putting it mildly. These guys, less than half my age, reminded me that all the important decisions we make in life should reflect our love for others. Our choices should help encourage and enable and empower those in our lives. What may be a small sacrifice for us may be the difference maker someone else needs to keep going.

I can only imagine their friend’s reaction when he was at the end of the race, feeling tired and worn down, possibly thinking about ducking out a few miles early and grabbing a street vendor hotdog, but then seeing his college pals genuinely cheering him on to the finish. That’s what being a real friend is all about. They did what they could to put someone else in the best situation possible.

I have absolutely nothing to show for all my Spring Breaks combined. Heck, I don’t even remember most of them. But this is a Spring Break these young men will remember for the rest of their lives. Because it wasn’t about them. It was about what they could give to someone else.