I recently returned from a bachelorette trip that took place on a cruise. Four whirlwind days, two packed rooms with six women and one non-binary pal (me), and a lot of raunchy jokes. Exactly what you would expect, if you put together a bride in her late 20s, her childhood best friend, three of her old sorority sisters, and two friends from her doctoral program.

Some of us were strangers, though most of us had met at least once before being thrown together for four days. By the end of the trip, we were far from strangers, and we each had developed a familiarity, comfort, and shared language that will exist far beyond our short time together.

In short, I had the best time and I think there are two main reasons for this.

First, the setup of a cruise is fascinating. Beyond just our party of seven, cruise boats are floating fantasies where thousands of strangers become kin for a few days. And I mean this more than in just the cheesy, “Welcome to our cruise family!” cruise director way. A friend of mine who had never been on a cruise before remarked on the ways that people just let loose in a way that you wouldn’t see at home. For instance, our first night on the boat we all attended a trivia session and a karaoke night. We were singing loudly, dancing whimsically, and just generally being (fun) menaces— and so was everyone around us. At home, I would never smile at a stranger the way I did on the boat. On the boat, we all know we are on vacation, bonded forever but also never going to see each other again. So, people let loose and have fun. They smile at one another, sit together at meals, and create pockets of connection that are valuable not because they last forever, but simply because they happened at all.

Cruises are a good lesson in the impermanence of all relationships and moments. Good or bad, it’s all fleeting.

Along these lines, the second reason I had such a great time was because of the group I was able to share the experience with. As I said, half of us started as relative strangers, but I don’t think we ended that way. I have only been a part of one other bridal party and we did not do much beyond the wedding, but this party— it is different. And on the cruise, it was exactly what I needed. People that are not strangers, people that could be friends, but people that could also just be safe and funny and vulnerable and ridiculous and open and interesting and chatty and wild for a few days. There were so many heavy things that each of us carried with us onto that boat. But, if the other girls felt anything like I did, I will speak for all of us when I say that we all put some of those things down for a few days so that we could just have fun. I told those women more about my personal life than many people I see on the daily because it was completely safe. They cared, they wanted to get to know me, but post-cruise, our connection is up to us…and I am happy to say that the GroupMe has still been fun and I am grateful to be a part of a group that found a friendly intimacy with one another that doesn’t have to end just yet.

I may wax poetic and I may be backtracking on my recognition and appreciation for the impermanence, but it was nice to have a group of female friends and continues to be nice as I get to know them all better outside of that group level experience.

Coming home was difficult post-cruise, and a lot of things that I felt were stable pre-cruise came apart as soon as the boat docked. I went on the cruise to have fun. To get the break that I knew I so desperately needed. And I did do that. But I did so much more than that, too, and my life now will forever be different.

This feeling of stability that was upended in those four days is the reason this blog has its title. See, the cruise rocked a whole lot, and so for the past week on land, I have felt like the boat is still moving, making me dizzy and unable to walk a straight line. The way I articulated this odd seasick feeling on land was through that language, of the boat still moving. But there is another meaning, too, that comes from the ways the boat seems to have kept moving in my personal life even as the actual trip is over. The boat won’t stop moving, and as nauseated as that makes me physically and thoughtful as it makes me emotionally, maybe it’s not such a bad thing.

In the end, I have decided I am someone who absolutely loves cruises and would like to go on many more— but not too many more. I don’t want to get used to it, to take it for granted, to lose that magic. For now, I think I just want to let the boat keep moving and see where that leads me.