6 Reasons Why You Won’t Regret This Year’s Spring Break Trip

Panama City Holiday Inn

By now you’ve probably either planned your spring break trip, have had one, or are currently hungover while on one. If you’re in college, and aren’t planning on doing anything for spring break, I recommend you reconsider. Spring breaks are a limited resource that should not be taken for granted. If you’re thinking to yourself, “You know I think I’m just going to take it easy this year, save some money,” think again.

Anyone who’s graduated will be the first to tell you that you’re making a huge mistake. The average collegiate gets around four spring breaks to enjoy the splendor of being young enough to not have a lot of responsibilities, and old enough to go places without a chaperone. So do it. And here’s why you won’t regret it.

1  In the long run, 1,000 dollars isn’t going to put a major dent in your already large pile of student loan debt

One main excuse people use for not going on a spring break trip is the lack of finances they have at the time. It’s a valid argument, but you can get packaged deals to Cancun for around $1,000. Now $1,000 may seem like a ton of money while you’re in school (and it is), but when you’re adding $1,000 to a $30,000 tuition debt it doesn’t seem so bad. You can also spend the next month or two saving a few bucks not eating out and skipping a “Thirsty Thursday” once or twice. Also, you don’t have to make it an extravagant and pricey trip. This brings me to my next point.

2. It doesn’t matter where you go

I do think that having at least one major spring break trip in your collegiate career is important, because dude, it’s spring break. However, just going somewhere outside of the town you’re living in can result in an awesome spring break with the right group of people. Going somewhere else breaks up the ritual of things, and makes everything that happens on the trip more memorable. No one remembers that routinely planned trip to the bar on Friday, but EVERYONE remembers that trip to the cabin.

3. It’s pretty hard to have a bad time on a vacation

This pretty much goes without saying, but for the most part, vacations are a great time. There’s a certain joy felt on vacations that is hard to encapsulate, but this is probably the best way I can describe it. It’s that little feeling of joy you get when you check in at a hotel, and you first open the door to your room. Everything’s new and interesting, even though it’s essentially just a bedroom. Then you turn on the TV, and even though the TV is ten times shittier than your TV at home, it feels great to just sit on that bed and watch TV. That’s the kind of unsolicited joy you get on vacations.

4. You’ll get to see some different viewpoints from different people

Sure you meet people in college with different views of the world, but going on a trip somewhere really makes you realize how different a lot of cultures/cities are. My senior year of college we took a road trip to California, and while we were in Santa Monica a guy who was trying to get donations for a charity asked us where we were from. We told him we were from South Dakota, and he followed up with, “What kind currency do you use there?” I paused for a second because I thought he was joking and then I realized he wasn’t. So I just replied, “US currency.” He still seemed a bit confused, but by then we were out of ear shot for any follow up questions. Looking back I wish I would have told him that our currency was something ridiculous like lumber, potato skins, or wooden vacuums. If he had asked what wooden vacuums were, I would go on describing them as brooms.

5. You’ll get some inside jokes that you’ll have for the rest of your lives

Vivid memories and inside jokes often go hand in hand. A week-long trip with a bunch of your friends is bound to inspire an inside joke or two that you’ll remember years later. On our road trip, we came across someone driving a Penske moving truck that cut us off. We then decided that a “Penske” was a great name for a person who drives like a dick. Years later, I still smile every time I see a Penske truck holding up traffic, and I think to myself, “What a Penske.”

6. You’ll meet some phantom friends

It seems like every spring break trip I went on with my friends, we would meet someone who we hung out with for a night, had a great time, but knew we would never see this person again in our lives. It’s a fun thought of hanging out with some random person for a night, and then parting ways to never see them again. They just become sort of random party folklores with names you give them like “Iowa Derrick.” One year we drank with a guy who was going to court the next morning to see how many years he would be spending in jail. We ended up hanging out with their group for a few hours, and it was a blast. I’ll never see that guy again. He’s just the guy we partied with before he went to jail. I hope he had a short sentence though. He seemed like a good dude.

The main theme to enjoying a spring break or any vacation for that matter is following through with these words: you just gotta do it. Whenever you’re feeling tired or run down someone needs to chime in with, “You just gotta do it.” For added effect, this can usually be followed up with a quick, “Dude, spring break.” Hopefully you make/made some spring break memories.