The week we’ve anticipated the entire academic year is finally here! Spring break! Whether you’re just going home for some quality time with your bed or jetting off to a sunny beach, you have plenty of fun and relaxing options for this break.
Many students’ plans may include some nightly festivities or some time spent relaxing by the pool with a cold drink in hand, but that doesn’t have to be the case for everyone. Right now, I’m a junior with an August birthday, which means most of my friends are already 21, especially my many senior-year friends. Most of their plans include drinking of some sort, which I was obviously not invited to participate in since I’m still 20 years old.
This year will be the third spring break of my college career with no drinking involved and I am positive it will be another fun break! Here are a few ideas, some from my personal experience, for what you can do over spring break if you’re under 21 or just forgoing a break with beverages.
- Go to a Friend’s Hometown
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Spend the week exploring your bestie’s hometown or take your bestie to your hometown! Be sure to take a tour of all their favorite local spots, meet their hometown friends, and find someplace new to both of you. And the best part of it is that you have a free place to stay! I did this last year by going to my bestie’s hometown of Fort Lauderdale, and I wrote an article about it!
- Do Some Community Service
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Make yourself happy by helping others this break! BU has a slew of alternative service breaks, or you can just do some volunteer work at home. It will really help to put your college stress in perspective.
- Take a Vacation with Your Family
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You most definitely need a break, and your parents and siblings probably do, too! This is actually my spring break plan for this year––I’m going to New Orleans with my parents and my sister. After not seeing them for some time while I’m at school, I’m ready for some long-awaited family time! I can’t wait to explore “The Big Easy,” scarf down some beignets, and possibly meet a spooky spirit on a ghost tour!
- Embrace Your Inner Child
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Plan an under-21 adventure with your friends, and pretend that you’re all still children! You could go to Disney World, Universal Studios… hit up all the theme parks! Then, once you turn 21, you can go back and have an entirely different vacation, one where you buy a drink at every country in Epcot, maybe?
- Go Home
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Although this is the default spring break plan and isn’t everyone’s first choice, going home is one of the best options! You can sleep in your own bed all week and not worry about getting up early for your 8 a.m., focus on getting ahead on schoolwork, make plans to catch up with your hometown friends and hang out with your family (furry friends included).
Now, don’t all of those options sound amazing? And do you notice how none of them require that you be 21 to have fun? So, if you’re under 21, go tell your friends to enjoy their spring breaks, but know that you can also have a blast!
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