Spring break has become troubled time for some
students but many do positive projects
BRITTANY TIDWELL
Apart
from media sources encouraging youngsters to go and “party-it-up”
over Spring Break, how did this specific break become designated to
be such a troubled time?
The break's purpose originally was for the opportunity to spend time
of rest with one's family for the religious holiday of Easter. However,
the celebration of Jesus' resurrection has now turned into a “real
party” for some, to go out and get drunk with friends, as displayed
by various sites on the internet.
“Spring break — and its drink-’til-you-drop nights,
wet T-shirt contests, limbo bouts and who knows what — is approaching.
Girls will be going where the boys are and vice versa.” In the
Bahamas, the State Department warns, “Alcohol is involved in the
vast majority of arrests, accidents, violent crimes and deaths suffered
by students. Violent crimes such as rape often happen at night or in
the early morning hours, and frequently involve alcohol and the club
environment. . . . Walking at night on secluded beaches alone or in
small groups is not advised,” stated Mim Swartz, in the Denver
Post February 29, 2004.
An article in USA Today noted that a weeklong vacation to Mexico costs
between $600 and $1,200. It seems to be the most popular destination
be-cause it is international, resulting in the legal drinking age of
18. An estimated 170,000 college aged and high school seniors descended
into Cancun during the eight weeks before Easter. These thousands pour
in from all over the United States to get in on the action of all the
weeklong parties that never cease and to join the large number of students
at the thousands of clubs in Mexico. The popular destinations for Spring
Break include Cancun, Mazatlan, Acapulco, Jamaica and the Bahamas, according
to USA Today.
Tiffany Sellars, a junior of YHS concluded “spring break gives
students the opportunity to go out and have the kind of fun that you
normally can't have on a school night.” MTV certainly has become
the number one source for students to find excitement over the break.
Every year they have celebrities host the four-day event consisting
of parties that start as soon as the travelers arrive and end the morning
they leave.
Where did Spring Break go wrong? In the 1950's, that time was designated
to rest and to devote oneself to studies. When the movie Where the Boys
Are premiered, the 1970's became a time for students to gather on the
beach and find true love over Spring Break. The 1990's are when traveling
broke into the picture to go to tropical, international destinations
(according to springbreak.com).
Linda Robison, YHS computer teacher and Future Business Leaders of America
advisor, remembers “I spent most of my time at church and with
my family, it was a really religious time for me. Now it's resulted
to young kids behaving however they want. It's gone from one extreme
to another, why can't we just find a medium.”
But not all students spend their break partying. Others find fun in
attending mission trips to serve others that are not as fortunate. Shannon
Bartoo, junior, said in response to ritual break activities “It's
alright for students to go and have fun, but not that wild and out of
control kind of fun like MTV persuades you to”.
Several churches in the mountain area choose to find positive ways to
spend a time of rest, or not so much rest in most cases. “Finding
ways to serve others in a positive and loving environment, as opposed
to getting wild, but getting wild about Christ instead” responded
Heather Spencer, junior. Col-leges as well as a vast majority of churches
plan these community service trips in place of a trip to the local parties,
mission trips have come to actually replace many students' itineraries.
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