We all look at Spring Break as a time devoted to liberation, experimentation and, in all honesty, intoxication. Everyone is familiar with how society depicts the way that we spend our Spring Break: renting out a cheap and disgusting beach condo or house with your closest friends, wearing clothes that your parents should not know that you own, hitting up all beach bars and clubs and passing the time with a sober-to-drunk ratio of 25:75. I mean it’s pretty much the typical week of a freshman, but in an exotic location and minus the education. Even with that being said, there are still so many college students that choose to go back home or stay in town during their break. They justify that traveling is too much work, that it’s too expensive, and the typical “college spring break” isn’t for them.
Despite the fact that I am opting out of the beach to go to Baltimore for a service trip (au contraire), here is why I encourage everyone to at least travel and spend your spring break away from your home and school, pretty much outside of your comfort zone.
You are finally being tested at making decisions and plans without your parent’s guidance. You’re calling the shots and you don’t have your parents planning out your vacation for you to spend with them, your siblings, grandparents, cousins, pet fish and so on. You and your friends are on your own and you make the choices on where you go, how much money you spend, and how you all are going to “stay busy.”
You just need to relax and shift your focus away from school and the problems that you are dealing with in your personal life. Staying home sounds like the easy way to relax but after a few days, you will get bored and lo and behold, you are stressed about your paper that is due in May reflecting on the poor decisions that you made last week. Get away and go somewhere that isn’t home or your apartment/dorm. College is all about exploration so get out, see new places and try new things!
It’s an opportunity to make new friends. Most of us want to curl up into the fetal position at the thought of being around unfamiliar people. Having to make new friends is something that we only want to deal with once every few years. It’s freshman orientation all over again where you’re performing detailed analysis on each person to see who will be your new friend. Believe it or not, if you go with a group of friends that you aren’t too close with on spring break, it might be intimidating at first but you are going to get to know these people on a deep level that you believed was out of your reach. For myself, if I had not decided to go out on a limb and go on a trip with a group of sisters that I was not too close with at the time last year, I would not have the friends that I have today.
It’s a time when mistakes are acceptable and probably even encouraged. You can book the wrong room, go to the worst restaurants and even get so drunk that you end up passing out in a shower, but who cares! College is a learning experience and we learn the most from our mistakes. Don’t be afraid to take risks and possibly have a few setbacks this spring break, because it is natural and a part of the college learning experience.
Although the idealized college trip is great and should be done at least once before you graduate, I realize that it’s not for everyone. Maybe you would rather go skiing, take part in a service trip, or even go abroad. The sky is the limit because there is so much to explore and your options are near limitless. No matter what you do, just get out! Don’t be afraid of taking the risks and stepping out of your comfort zone to learn more about yourself and the world around you. When you are doing it alongside your friends, nothing can beat the sense of accomplishment that you will share with them this spring break when you finally just step out of the boundaries that limit you.
