For the first time during my time in college, I’m not going home for spring break. Instead, I’ll be traveling for the week. When I thought about how this trip would be the first, I was struck by the idea that I would be like every other college kid — that I would be doing what a college kid was supposed to do and thus I was finally fitting in, in that regard. However, once those thoughts entered my brain, I was fascinated by how wrong they were.
This sense of there being a right and wrong way to plan your spring break is something that I’ve seen on Reels on Instagram or 30 second videos on TikTok. One having this thought pattern is not uncommon, but is brought on by a thing that I believe a lot of people my age struggle with and then see amplified on social media: comparison. Though the reader may already know this and this is something that I have realized too, I still want to impress on anybody who reads this article that no matter what you do for spring break, it will not be the wrong choice.
If you’re like me this break and are going somewhere else besides the place you call home, then you may be feeling like you are forgoing time with loved ones. However, this doesn’t have to be the mindset that weighs you down for all of the breaks. College is about coming of age, and, for some of us, to learn about ourselves means learning in other environments than the ones we know too well. And though one may not be in the same space as your loved ones, that doesn’t preclude you from calling them or sending photos from your trip. Truly, the people who love you won’t get mad that you’re not with them for one of your breaks, especially if you have planned to come home another time. When someone cares about you, that means that they want you to be happy rather than trying to satisfy what everyone else needs to be happy before oneself. And that should also include going on a trip for one week of the year.
On the other side of the coin, going home for spring break isn’t a sign of one not taking full advantage of their college experience. As I previously mentioned, social media has amplified this need to compare our lives to others. This need is based on a distortion because social media is like a photo album. A photo album doesn’t contain the less-than-happy moments of one’s life. Rather a photo album, much like social media, is about capturing a passage of time that is meant to be positive, but becomes pushed to the extreme of trying to seem perfect on social media. Going home like I’ve done my past two spring breaks can simply be the best decision for someone and can excite others as much as a trip can. Sometimes going home is what just needs to happen for one reason or another, and that’s okay too.
Altogether, there is no one way to properly do spring break. You can go home or go far away, and both things can be okay. Pushing down your happiness in either arrangement because of what other people may feel is never the answer. At least that’s what I’ve been learning in part during my time in college, and I hope that if there’s anyone else out there who may be worrying about these same things, they know this too.