For many college students, spring break is a welcome week off of school to be spent on vacation in warmer weather, on sandy beaches and with no responsibilities. It consists of partying, drinking, tanning and overeating. The typical spring break is what every college student dreams of, the typical scene in movies where everyone is in swimsuits with perfect hair and no tan lines.
I will never experience the traditional college spring break. But I am okay with that, because I get to be a part of something better: a rowing spring break. For my fellow rowers and myself, the week consists of hard work and team building. Where a team comes together on and off the water after spending months of training indoors.
It starts off with a 24-hour bus ride to warmer weather. Once we get there, we are greeted with the knowledge that the next week will be the hardest training we will have faced yet. Coaches love to pack four weeks of rowing into one week, simply because they can.
We wake up before sunrise and are the first ones on the water. Before the fishermen, before the surfers, before the pleasure cruisers, we row. As the week progresses, we begin to race against our teammates, fighting for a chance to race in the varsity boat. The anticipation for spring season grows stronger with every stoke we take. Day by day, stroke by stoke, we are becoming the rowers we always envisioned we would be.
At the end of the day, when we have reached levels of exhaustion we never thought we could reach, we push ourselves even more to fight beyond the limits our coaches expect of us. I can tell that every aspect of my rowing spring break has brought out the best in my team and that everything we have worked for has been completely worth it.
Don’t get me wrong, we enjoy many aspects of a traditional spring break too. The new tan, the all-inclusive food and the beaches. ‘Walking’ along the beach consists of running and cardio circuits. The tan involves hard sports bra lines, sock lines, watch lines, raccoon eyes from your sunglasses, and the ever-so-attractive mid-thigh spandex lines.
The most memorable part of the week wasn’t the five hours we spent on the water while battling alligators and white-cap producing wind, it was the lessons I learned. It was learning that nothing unites a rowing team more than maneuvering around manatees. It was learning that sunscreen is not merely a suggestion. It was learning the number of push-ups my body could withstand to win a DQ blizzard. It was learning how competitive a shuffleboard tournament can get.
During my spring break, I learned why I row. It’s for the experiences we all share as a team. So no, I did not get to party on the beach in a bikini while drinking out of a pineapple. I experienced so much more, and I would not trade it for anything
