My freshman year of college I begged my mom to let me go on a girls trip during spring break to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. She said no. At the time, I was furious she wouldn’t let me go, all the other girls’ moms were letting them take off on the road trip. I couldn’t understand why my mom was being so protective. As senior, I now am thankful she kept me back as such an inexperienced first year and here is why.
- Drinking
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Large party destinations boil down to drinking and a beach. I’m not a huge drinker myself, but I just can’t wrap my head around the desire to to be blacked-out drunk all day everyday for a week. I like to remember my fun times with friends and when students are drinking each night when they go out they more likely than not to have to be reminded of the fun they had. Also, not to mention the barfing. It’s not pleasant. The binge drinking that occurs on super populated beaches is directly linked with puking. I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know, but hopefully providing a frame you haven’t considered. If you are underage and considering attending a wild spring break adventure, just know the authorities are aware of what happens and are looking for drunk college girls to arrest.
- Too Many People and the Waiting
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Waiting in a line that wraps the build for a simple chocolate cone isn’t my style, but that’s what you can expect when going to places like Miami, Ft. Myers, Daytona, ect. Part of the reason I look forward to spring break is to get away from everyone I normally see. Lots of people take trips with 20+ students from the same university. This keeps you within school drama and can make you very tired of the same friends, which starts bickering. The crowded beaches are loud, people block your view, and forget trying to eat out without a reservation; that doesn’t sound like paradise to me.
- Need to Really Relax
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Spring semester can be mentally draining! For some reason, it always seems harder than the fall, maybe due to the fact that spring break is the only time off, which makes this week even more important when recharging your mental battery and boosting yourself up to finish the rest of the semester. If you decide to visit a popular beach-party destination just be prepared to return to campus exhausted and in need of another spring break to rest from the first. During this sort of trip, you may not sleep as much as you need or eat as well as you usually do and therefore drain your body from the already intense semester of work you’ve been doing.
- The Risk
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This is the real reason you should consider skipping this years’ party-trip. Especially as a woman, you can not let your guard down and be a careless spring breaker. The popular costal cities are a major ground for sexual assault. The threat does not just rise from creepy other spring breakers, but employees that scout for vulnerable women and the perfect time to pounce. Thousands of women don’t realize the risk they are confronting until it is too late. Aside from sexual assault, every year, accidental injuries are common among college spring breaker. Young kids get drunk and hurt themselves, falling from buildings specifically is a major issue. Not to consider the theft that occurs! Its pretty hard to keep track of your belongings when you’re drunk and some people may take advantage of this. Obviously these things do not happen to everyone who spends spring break at the beach, but they should be risks you consider.
Instead of tagging along to the beach party you could plan a road trip, go camping, visit a nearby city, take a train to a new destination, be a tourist in your home town, stay with a friend, send job/internship applications (not very fun, but probably needed), visit family, write a Her Campus article, pick up some more shifts at your job, go hiking, see a play, do lots of self-care, read, hang out with your siblings (because they miss you), go to an amusement park, see a concert, or catch up on your binge-watching. There are so many ways you could spend spring break this year.