What are you doing for break? This is the question everyone asks and everyone gets asked, but not everyone has the same response. Here is my take on what constitutes the classic, college spring break.
A beach, some big, sandy boobs and lots of beer. If this is indeed the case, you would expect me to have my tickets booked for Panama City Beach, Fla., right? No dice. Instead, I am looking forward to sitting at home for five or six days with my dog and Showtime on-demand. Thrilling, but a boring and completely unproductive spring break is much more my style.
As confident as I may sound, I still have some difficulty coming to terms with not partaking in the typical spring break. I am a young, impressionable college student after all. I know myself well and thus realize it is unlikely I would enjoy a big, boob-filled trip like that, but I am not immune to peer pressure and wanting to act normal. Ergo, sometimes I wish that I was having what everyone tells me is the necessary “college experience.”
It is difficult, however, to make conversation about spring break plans when you have fully accepted that you will be sitting on your ass at home for a week while the other person is already prepping with self-tanner for her crazy, drunken week in some foreign yet highly bro-populated beach-front resort. You lose any respect they may have had for you once you say, “Oh, I’m just going home and relaxing, but it will be nice to see my dog.”
On the other side of the conversation, I am never sure to ask, so I usually just say, “You will have sooooo much fun!” with my pathetic but hopeful smile. I then avert my eyes as quickly as possible and remind myself that not every beach party involves wet T-shirt contests and keg stands (right?).
Having said that, I am no prude, so I think I will start prepping for Spring Break 2013 soon, mostly by collecting white tank tops and doing a crap ton of crunches, which will be beneficial for both parties on the beach as well as sitting up straighter on the couch in my Hanes pajamas.
I know there are others out there like me, people too lazy to make plans or simply just do not have the dough (understandable) for a fancy vacation.
What do you all do when people ask you what your plans are? Are you honest yet mildly ashamed like me? Or perhaps you lie and say you are visiting three countries in Europe, or maybe you say that you do not believe in “spring break” (using air quotes, of course). Others of you may deny even knowing that break starts next week.
Whatever your break plans, make sure to return with one good story so you have something to talk about when everyone asks you that imminent question, “So, how was your spring break?”
Do you enjoy lazy, boring spring breaks as well? Tell Emily she is not alone by emailing her at elindeman@wisc.edu.
