Author: Brett Fujioka
It’s the same old story every year. Students return from spring break to discuss their week-long trips in lunchrooms, college hangouts and cafeterias across the nation. They detail the amount of beer that they drank each night, list the foreign strangers that they slept with and recall the number of ounces that they smoked in Amsterdam-not once do they talk about anything proactive. I know that spring break is meant to be a period of leisure and rest, but it’s also an opportunity to do things that you couldn’t while attending school.
I don’t have a problem with drinking, but imbibing alcohol with the sole purpose of getting yourself wasted compromises your spring break experience. People usually realize that it was a bad idea to drink copious amounts only at the peak moment when they get sick, but they forget the lesson learned the morning after. Whether you vacation in Cancun, Amsterdam, London or even Paris, what’s the point of drinking so much that you forget your experiences in a foreign land?
Binge drinking further tarnishes America’s already floundering reputation. The “cowboy diplomacy” of the current administration has placed a looming stereotype upon Americans. Getting belligerent in public would further strengthen that stereotype. Besides, you can get drunk in public at college where, even if it isn’t cool, it’s amusing to others.
I have nothing against marijuana as long as people use it “responsibly,” if that’s even possible. Still, traveling to legalized countries like Amsterdam and (technically) Canada with the purpose of getting blitzed is just as embarrassing as getting wildly drunk in public. The Dutch have become so acquainted with marijuana use that overindulging oneself is generally frowned upon. Going to Amsterdam with the sole purpose of being high 24/7 makes you look like a kid eating nothing but candy for every meal just because he can.
What I’m trying to get at is that a better alternative to messing yourself up is making your spring break a fun learning experience. I’m not asking anyone to take a week-long course at a community college-that’s about as exciting as watching plants grow. Virtually every job out there dispenses vacation days for people to indulge themselves in small spurts of debauchery. There aren’t going to be that many opportunities to volunteer after college.
One specific option that comes to mind is volunteering in New Orleans. Rebirth Club, the student organization on campus focused on helping rebuild New Orleans, gathers a large group of students each year during the winter for a trip down South. I’m pretty sure that if the club accumulated enough students interested in going on a trip for spring break, then they’d consider organizing another.
Even though volunteers should focus on providing relief, they still have plenty of free time to unwind and explore the city. By traveling and volunteering in New Orleans, students can strike a balance between leisure, indulgence and meaningful work. I know that a lot of people would prefer experiencing different traditions from distant lands, but New Orleans definitely possesses a distinct culture of its own.
Professor Heldman is probably going to skin me alive for encouraging this, but how many people out there can say that they volunteered in New Orleans? The Katrina disaster was a historical event of American negligence. By volunteering in New Orleans, students are taking part in history. Twenty years from now, wouldn’t you want to have participated actively in the events of our time instead of standing idly by?
However, assignments given out during spring break negate any possibility for either of these activities. The professors that give spring break homework are probably doing so to prevent students from going on escapades of debauchery, but inevitably eliminate the possibility of charity work as well.
If you manage to sneak into spring break without any of the aforementioned assignments looming overhead, I’d recommend doing charity work. All of this stuff looks good on resumes, and it’s a safe wager it will help you to prepare for your future career-not to mention the feeling of productivity and accomplishment a volunteer takes from his or her experience. Altogether, volunteer work is potentially just as fun as leisure, but far more productive.
Brett Fujioka is a senior ECLS major. He can be reached at bfujioka@oxy.edu.
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