Spring break. Countless movies and television shows tell us that it should be the highlight of our college career. It should involve a gorgeous beach filled with tons of other college students in an exotic location. We should go wild and let off steam with a couple thousand of our closest friends.
For the vast majority of people spring break looks nothing like this, but many feel a sense of FOMO even if they had no interest in the trip described above. I remember my freshman year when my friends and I were convinced we had to do something huge and wound up in the Bahamas. The condo was cute, the water was clear, and the beaches were gorgeous, but there was constantly a sense of pressure to have a typical spring break.
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Even though the majority of our friends were either home or spending their time hanging out and relaxing, the few people partying in Mexico made it seem like that was THE place to be. I wound up spending the vast majority of what I had made with my on campus job and still left feeling let down in some way.
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It wasn’t until later that I realized I had put way too much pressure on the trip. I let the expectation that Hollywood set control my idea of a perfect vacation. Given how stressful Duke can be, spring break for me is best spent relaxing and finding my center before being thrown back into the craziness that is second semester. So while I do feel like the hype around Spring Break is incredibly overrated, the opportunity it provides for people to take a step back from campus and hit the reset button is extremely underrated.
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