You know how sometimes you build something up in your mind and it doesn’t manage to fulfil your expectations? Well that wasn’t the case with the team trip—it was even more amazing than we could have imagined.

Each year we count down the minutes until the annual team trip, which brings us together for eight days. Set in Lisbon, Portugal, this year’s trip focused on internal projects, brainstorms and strategic planning for 2018, as well as some serious bonding. Some of the highlights included our nightly living room bonfire, which is where we took turns sharing our life stories with the group. Following the bonfire, we would write hand written notes for each other, placing them into specified envelopes that could be opened after everyone returned home. We also had the chance to write postcards to ourselves, which we would be able to read during the next team trip. and although we partied way less than last year, we still had one night that went until 7 am. The lesson of this evening was: don’t spray beer on people.

Truthfully, describing this year’s experience with words is almost impossible—the team trip is a feeling. And although we left with tons of inspiration, we were a bit heartbroken that it had to end. It now seems like we’re all in one big long distance relationship with each other, and while it was sad to say goodbye on the last day, we walked away with tons of gratitude for getting to work with such incredible (and talented) people.

If this year is anything like our trip, it’s going to be really, really good.