Dear Spring Breakers,
Please be safe.
I mean it. Honest to God, I want each and every one of you to return home safely. Spring Break culture may seem like fun and games, but there is a darkness to it that hardly anyone talks about.
The American College of Health reported in 2014 that the average male college student drinks 18 alcoholic beverages a day, and the average female college student drinks 1 alcoholic beverages a day during spring break. This leads to alcohol poisoning and death.
Binge drinking is a problem during the rest of the academic year, with more than 1,800 reported deaths a year, according to the National Institute for Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA). The majority of these deaths, however, occur during spring break. For every one death reported in the news, it is estimated that three other college students die unreported during the spring break season.
In 2014, a report from the NIAAA indicated nearly 600,000 college students injured themselves and nearly 700,000 were physically assaulted due to alcohol consumption.
Let's talk about sex.
In the same report mentioned above, it was found that 97,000 students were sexually abused. Spring break is the epitome of rape culture. Rape happens to both genders.
In 2013, 57 percent of female college students polled believed that in order to fit in during spring break they had to be promiscuous. 60 percent had friends who had unprotected sex.
Girls, your worth is not defined by how many people you kiss or sleep with.
Each of you are beautiful. You are worthy to be properly loved. You absolutely, positively DO NOT need to sleep around to have fun or to prove to your "friends" that you're an awesome human being.
For the guys, the same goes for you. Your manliness is not defined by how many people you kiss or sleep with. You don't need random people to have sex with you to be an awesome person.
Spring break can be fun and relaxing, but it can leave you scarred.
So please, for the love God has for each of you –His sons and daughters– be safe this spring break.
