By Juan Ibarra/campus editor
Students contemplate how to best spend their week of vacation
College kids are off of school for a week, and they have no responsibilities until they go back to classes. So, what’s the plan? “Let’s all go to a beach house and party it up!”
This is what is shown in movies and TV. Adolescents watch as a gang of friends goes to a nice place on the beach and drink crazy amounts of alcohol.
The reality is that a large population of students don’t go to the beach or party with friends during spring break. Sometimes, reality has other plans.
Students have different focuses during spring break, from vacationing with friends to catching up on sleep.
“I work from 4 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. so it’s a good time to catch up,” NE student Chris Kelly said.
Having time to relax is a large focus for many students. Kelly explained that he wanted to spend the rest of his spring break finishing off some games that he has yet to finish, such as “Red Dead Redemption 2.”
On the other end of the spectrum, NE student Dominic Briones has decided to spend her break away from home by going on an adventure.
“I’ll be going on with friends down to Austin just to sightsee and to travel,” she said.
These plans are different, but neither is like the movie version of what college students are doing.
TR student Tanner Uloth took a look at the movie version of spring break and compared it with the reality of what students do.
“Hollywood’s idea of spring break is always crazy, wild parties, drinking [and] just doing crazy fun stuff I guess,” he said. “But, in reality, for a college student, I’m constantly studying, constantly doing homework [and] constantly working trying to get extra hours to get more money. And I just feel like the average college student doesn’t have any time to do Hollywood’s version of spring break.”
The disparity between the two versions of spring break is vastly different when compared to each other. However, not all students agree that the “Hollywood” version of spring break is only in movies.
“I was in the military, so our spring breaks were more like that,” TR student Christian Anderson said. “I would either be working or doing what we saw in movies.”
Some students believe that the spring break students have is completely dependent on location and various other factors.
“It’s definitely not a bad perception, but it’s not 100 percent correct for every college student,” NW student Julia Antio said.
It’s a different type of environment being in the military when compared to going through community college classes. Similarly, some students believe the difference between four-year university and two-year college spring breaks make the divide more apparent.
“Community colleges are more for people who are trying to be able to get scholarships for university or save up because they can’t afford to go straight from high school to a university,” NW student Richard Brown said.
Regardless of whether spring break is going to be celebrated at a wild party with tons of friends or spent at home catching up on homework, one of the most important factor students want to share with each other is to make sure everyone enjoys some relaxation.
“I think spring break itself is something that, probably, students need to take advantage of actually since we’re under a lot of pressure and stress due to our professors and classes,” Briones said.
While enjoying some relaxation time, the other thing people need to remember is to stay safe.
“Be careful when partying and hanging out with friends,” NE student Timothy Franklin said. “Just stay safe and make good choices.”
