When the calendar turns to March, there is one thing students look forward to with sheer enthusiasm – spring break.

The anticipation snowballs with each day as students become increasingly eager to leave the lecture halls and hit the beach. Once the day finally arrives, the excitement to get on the road for a week in paradise is higher than the sun in the sky on the beaches students inhabit for seven days. Eventually, the awesome and exhilarating ride to heaven on the sand and in clubs comes to an end, leading to one gruesome and painstaking ride from hell back to campus.

Stairway To Heaven

It’s Friday. You’re done with class and you cannot wait to get out of town on your way to that glorious, warmer destination. Your buddies have the car packed to the roof with the essentials for the duration of your stay. There may be an incredibly pale friend who is the butt of all jokes because he resembles Casper, the Friendly Ghost and is bringing enough sunscreen to protect Rhode Island. To be fair, you can never have too much sunscreen.

You’re finally on the road in a crammed car where, hopefully, the person next to you showered because it’s going to be a long, long ride. You celebrate crossing the first border, exhilarated to cross more. Chances are, you hear the same songs as you pass through each state unless you were wise enough to make your own playlist to keep everyone jazzed.

In the wee hours of the early morning, drivers continue to switch off. The morning sun breaks the horizon and your companions can the feel the rush, or maybe it’s a buzz from a few roadies once you made it to the South.  

The motorcade of friends has arrived and you’re all yearning to find your spot in the sand to 

settle in and let the fun begin.

One week later...

Highway To Hell

It’s Friday, again. Only this time, you want nothing to do with that treacherous ride. You’ve blown close to a month’s worth of rent and, for a portion of it, you can’t even remembered what you purchased. That pasty white friend is burnt to a crisp like a lobster due to being naïve, or intoxicated, for most of the trip. The amount of alcohol consumed that week could easily inebriate the state of Rhode Islanders and, in a few hours, will be disgustingly sweated out of the body.

After an hour or so of struggling to recuperate from everything, you’re finally ready to checkout of the hotel and get the car packed. It’s still fairly packed because a couple friends bought some absurd souvenirs that cluster the car. Everyone finally situates themselves, and so begins the ride from hell.

If it hasn’t already kicked in, you’re completely hungover, and all you can feel is a pounding in your head like that monkey forever smacking cymbals while he laughs at you. Not only is your head throbbing, but everyone reeks of alcohol and odor because everyone was too lazy to shower before leaving. Not only that, but one of your friends in the car keeps feeling like he is going to vomit every thirty minutes. “This is torture,” you think to yourself.

What was once the most sought after trip is now becoming the bane of your existence because it seems like the ride back will never end. Having to drive was the one thing you dreaded the most because there was little to no chance you’d be completely focused on the road. However, once it was over, you couldn’t be anymore happy because it was smooth sailing, thereafter.

Finally, you’re closing in on campus. You start seeing familiar streets and landmarks that remind you of the beautiful place you call home during school. No one is at each other’s throats anymore because you’re nearing the finish line. Returning north means the temperature has dropped thirty to forty degrees, so tank tops and shorts will no longer suffice.

It’s bittersweet, but you’re glad to be back home with your best friends and others you haven’t seen since before break. The memories will be everlasting, and the ones you do not recall will be Kodak moments for all to see in pictures. Spring break will be a time you cherish more than many others during your time in college, so making the most of what is offered is the key to an incredible week.