Every year during high school, I would watch hundreds of college students on MTV having the time of their lives on Spring Break. I would look forward to my turn at flying down south of the boarder to party with my friends. Not until I actually got to BU did I realize that there would be no way for me to actually afford such a trip. I wonder: how could these people pay for one?
As the day approached, I quickly made plans for my week off. The first plan was to whisk my way across the ocean to visit my friend in Austria. Nope — didn’t happen. My second idea was to fly south and soak up some rays on a Florida beach. Nope — no go. Third on my list was to road trip it up north to Canada for some serious alcohol-..induced fun. Nope — my P.OS car would never make that trip. I had to settle for going home for the break. I was able to scrape together just enough money to buy a plane ticket, which I bought on sale at a discount airfare site.
While my friends gallivanted in Europe, in the warmer weather of the Caribbean and out west, I trekked home to Pennsylvania. Home, where the grass is greener (well, where there is actually grass), where you don’t get lung cancer walking though a cloud of cigarette smoke into a building and where you don’t run the risk of being run over by a Beamer or a Mercedes when you go to cross the street. I went home, from Commonwealth Avenue to Cowpath Road.
After sitting around for a few days, I decided to actually do something. I wanted to go somewhere. I called my friend Bob, also on Spring Break, and he agreed. But we didn’t go anywhere glamorous. We went to one of the most interesting places we could find: Lancaster. Yes, that’s right, we went to the land of the Amish, and the discount outlet. Nothing says Spring Break like an Amish buggy driving through Intercourse, Pa.
For a moment, I sit here in my West dorm room and wish that I could have gone somewhere fun for break, but then it hits me: I don’t want to have to pay off a huge credit card bill — the airlines sure won’t take my convenience points! Since my parents would never pay for me to go participate in some good old-fashioned Spring Break debauchery, I had to settle for home, Buster and Bella the dogs, the Buffalo next door and realizing that unlike some people, my break was virtually free. So MTV can keep its Spring Break. While those people are willing to work their butts off to pay their bills, I’ll settle for watching it on TV, if I ever get cable, that is.
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