A respectable alternative
This Spring Break, while most college students were drinking enough booze to successfully forget how much booze they drank, a small-but-growing number of coeds bettered both themselves and their communities by participating in Alternative Spring Break programs.
These programs, which are growing in popularity and variety, double as vacations and service projects, providing students with the chance to visit unknown locales while dedicating their time to the improvement of in-need social and ecological communities. These programs are duly valuable to the constitution of the everyday college student and ought to be considered by all of us before we head out to jolly ol’ Cancun.
Perhaps the best way of recognizing the value of Alternative Spring Break activities is by oppositional comparison-in other words, by considering the alternatives to Alternative Spring Break.
Historically, Spring Break is a socially acceptable opportunity for collegiate coeds to participate in alcohol-induced, dangerous and irresponsible behavior. This behavior may take the form of unprotected sex or hazardously obscene binge drinking or drug use, but it is almost exclusively a phenomenon of the “Spring Break mentality.” Essentially, for the duration of the week, nobody knows, cares or will reprimand a college student for his or her ridiculous ways.
Aside from Spring Break, very few self-respecting coeds drink to the point of blacking out every night, sleep with unknown partners and treat their clothing as a nuisance and impediment to pole dancing. This behavior would draw concern at other times of year, but during Spring Break, it is the casual norm.
This happens largely because society seems to ignore the dangers of Spring Break by turning a blind eye to the national party, muttering something to the effect of, “Oh, kids will be kids.” This practiced ignorance acts, in a way, as a ticket to unmitigated mayhem. For a week, especially in the so-called “Spring Break hot spots” such as Florida and Mexico, students are afforded an unbelievable freedom to do as they please without worry-a freedom that leads to a great deal of physical injury, sexual abuse, psychological trauma and social embarrassment.
This is not a statement meant to morally indict the practice of countless college students-in truth, morality is not the issue here. This is a truism meant to indicate that, with the amount of money poured into Spring Break activities and the kind of return delivered on those investments (if you can call a bad case of pubic lice and a nasty headache a return), Spring Break could be a period of time put to far, far better use.
Consider: For most students, a hotel, plane ticket and open tab at a bar for a week will cost approximately $1,000, depending on the destination. There are thousands upon thousands of students who dole out this dough at the peril of their livers and self-respect. That means that there are hundreds upon hundreds upon hundreds of thousands of dollars and man-hours that could be put to use either assisting the underprivileged, rebuilding the recently destroyed, developing the underdeveloped or just plain being a socially responsible member of society.
This is precisely where the value of Alternative Spring Breaks can be most visibly seen.
We must recognize that we live in a time of particular turmoil (the annihilated Gulf Coast, the increasing economic instability, the political uncertainty, et al). We must also recognize that we, as college students, are soon to be affected, participating members of this tumultuous community-the troubles will soon be ours to bear. As such, it is hard to justify spending unseemly funds and hours on activities which-let’s face it-benefit absolutely nobody, when we could be helping those in need.
The Spring Break time and money, if practically applied, could expedite the rebuilding of New Orleans, help stabilize the economy of underprivileged communities, curb the systemic causes of poverty and hunger and generally help make the world a much better place.
All things considered, potentially saving a life is a much better idea that potentially risking yours with a bottle of Patrn, no? It’s a sobering recognition, but perhaps a bit of sobriety is precisely the alternative we need.