A Michigan Tech student does a double take after glancing at their academic calendar. They read it correctly. It’s spring break. After a few grueling weeks, their efforts in organizing syllabi, submitting first assignments, and scouring chapter one of every textbook borrowed have earned them the most sacred of university-life reprieves.
Hurriedly, the Tech student calls home. Their parents are shoveling snow from the driveway, anticipating their arrival. Next, a call is sent to their friends, all across the country earning undergrads. But, of course, spring break is the great unifier. What’s this? Not for another month, they say? The student stops and considers their options. Spring break in Miami will certainly have to wait if Fargo, North Dakota, is decidedly dead.
By the time of penning this article, I would wager most students at our campus have reckoned with a less sensational experience, but not dissimilar to the one I flourished above. For MTU, spring break occupies the final week of February. FEBRUARY. I shudder, and not just at the frigid forecasts.
The reasoning for this visceral reaction is born from the student’s experience. This simple change has disrupted a very sacred tradition among college students nationwide: the exodus of every collegiate back to their hometowns – or party beaches – to reconvene with family and friends. Yearly, I return to a Midwestern, small, rural town (for those who don’t know me personally, imagery of Kevin Bacon from Footloose should suffice) to reunite with my graduating class of ten and point out hometown highlights to visiting peers. Yes, our hotdog statue IS the world’s largest.
It may be easy to dismiss the value of spring break as a social frivolity. This is especially so when it befuddles educational curriculums or university endeavors. Socialization is weighed insufficiently to the practical every time. Now I turn hairs grey deliberating over a vacation I will still receive. This isn’t the elimination initiative that almost dusted our fall break only a short year ago. So, to what end do I write?
I write to affirm the importance of the voice of socialization, relaxation, and every mode of rest we hasten to eliminate or undervalue from the calendars of a busy world. My sentiments are not alone. Shortly after the whispers of spring break in February (there’s that chill again..), petitions appeared in Tech’s Reddit threads and Facebook circles to restore some semblance of normalcy, bolstered by names and commenters alike, peers and parents. This matters to the student body. We don’t ask for supreme power, but it is only human to desire a taste.
This year, however, the Tech student will have to make the best of it, donning swimsuits and floaties before leaping into the blizzard before them.
