There’s nothing quite like the phenomenon of a college spring break. It seems social norms, internal clocks and basic needs go right out the window sometimes. With spring break 2020 upon us, I thought now would be a good time to reflect on my past spring break, and I had some help in doing it.
Last year, I and about 15 other people decided to go to Daytona Beach. I know what you’re thinking but wait, it gets better. We decided that all 15 of us should stay in the same condo in Daytona Beach. That condo was not made for 15, and we were not prepared for the repercussions. It probably wouldn’t have been as big of a deal if we had stayed outside on the beach as much as we expected to, but it was unseasonably cold for mid-march, and there’s only so much high-speed wind and icy ocean water one can take in a day. Also, the one hot tub teenagers had access to was much closer to a cesspool with how many kids squeezed into it. So, we spent a lot more time in the room than expected, and we ran out of food, toilet paper and cleaning supplies VERY quickly. Towards the end of the week, people could handle instant mac-n-cheese and being holed in the room less and less and would break off into smaller groups to find things to do. Nothing crazy happened to me personally, but as I was reflecting with the group on some of their adventures, I realized that they had way more going on than a lack of toilet paper. A few particularly fun quotes I received were:
“We went to a party in another room with some friends we had made earlier on the beach. I’m not sure what happened, but around sunset, I woke up in a lounge chair at the pool… of a different resort than ours.”
“We went to a bar that gave away shirts for free if you changed into it while standing on the bar. I won’t go into details, but basically, I accidentally flashed everyone there.”
“On the beach, we met a bunch of kids from a private school in New York. One of them had a really nice camera, and we made him do a beach photoshoot for us.”
“Within a few hours of getting to the resort, before we even did anything, I lost my wallet and keys. We cleaned out every inch of that place before we left, and we never found them. I still have no idea what happened to them.”
“Ended up walking into a strip club that I thought was just a normal club one night.”
This last story takes the cake.
“A big group of us was walking through Daytona at night but weren’t walking all that close together. My friend and I were farther ahead than the others and about to cross the street. Rather than wait for the crosswalk to go, my friend thinks he can beat the cars passing and decides to run into the street as fast as possible before anyone can stop him. He did not beat all the cars. The last car nails him in the hip, he flips and lands on the sidewalk. He was okay, but I truly thought I just witnessed his death”
Another friend chimes in here, saying “Yeah, I didn’t see it happen, but a homeless man was running after me yelling that my friend got hit by a car. I was super confused until I did a headcount and realized everyone wasn’t there.”
When I asked my friend that was hit, all he wanted to say was: “After the paramedics left, I got a ticket for jaywalking.” Lesson learned.
I would like to say, there were plenty of not crazy things that happened. We did spend plenty of time at the beach, made some friends, played volleyball and made up plenty of games to play when we were stuck in the room. This was just a highlight reel if you will. That being said, I’m going with a lot of the same people this spring break, and I’m hoping for better. We shall see.
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