Every spring, millions of thrill-seeking college students flock to the sunny beaches of places like FLorida and Mexico for a week of indulgence and sin.
No classes, no girlfriends and lots of alcohol translate into one thing, the craziest seven days of your life. It is the one of the few times where anything goes, and the rules are limited to one: What happens on spring break, stays on spring break. Even if you can only afford to do it once in your college career, you really owe it to yourself to check it out.
Just as it may be for many of you, this spring break will be my last, as I will be sporting the cap and gown come May. Sure, it is a depressing thought to think it is about time to get a real job and grow up, but I learned a valuable life lesson this past year on break that has helped me cope.
This past year I went with a group of about 15 girls and 3 guys down to the country’s hottest spring break spot, Panama City Beach, Fla. At first I thought, “Wow, 15 girls, this is gonna be awesome.” It was a blast, but I quickly realized that going on spring break with a bunch of girls was not all it was cracked out to be. With that many cute girls comes about three times as many guys looking to hook up with them.
For example, I remember one morning I had just woken up and was still laying in bed watching TV when some guy I had never seen before walked out of the bathroom with only a towel on. He said “hey,” I said “hey” back, and then he walked out of the room never to be seen or heard from again. Still to this day I have not figured out who he was with or why he was taking a shower in our bathroom.
It seemed that every time I turned around, there was a new group of guys talking to the girls. Then one day my friend was approached by some guys on the beach who wanted us to come to a party and promised us all the free alcohol we could drink if we just brought some girls. That offer sounded too good to pass up, so later that night we got some of the girls and headed off to find this party.
When we got there, the first thing we were asked to do is sign a waiver allowing them to videotape us. It turns out that we had been coaxed into bringing our friends to a “Girls Gone Wild” Party where a group of shady guys were willing to give girls money and t-shirts in exchange for seeing some skin. They took alcohol orders from us, and about 20 minutes later someone came back with everything we asked for, no charge. Another 20 minutes later, the cops showed up, and that was the end of that.
The real highlight of the trip did not come until the last day though. Everyone was chilling out on the beach, playing volleyball and drinking beer from our keg planted in the sand when an elderly couple strolled by. Being the friendly guy my buddy Kurt is, he yelled to them “Hey, you guys spring breakers?” and that got them to come over and see what we were up to.
At the time we were all taking turns doing kegstands, and the woman, easily 70 years old, said she wanted to try and do one. The first time we got her up, she lost her grip and it only lasted a few seconds, but she was not satisfied. So we lifted her up a second time, and with the large crowd that had gathered around our keg, we urged her along as she stayed up like a champ for about 15 seconds.
When I asked her husband if he wanted to try and do one, he replied, “I would, but my arthiritis is really bad. I am going to go home though and tell my kids I had a great time with the Spring Breakers!” in the most enthusiastic voice I have ever heard. Seeing their youthful spirit was easily the most memorable moment of the trip for me. It gave me reassurance that life does not have to stop being fun after college.
Even though this couple was in their 70’s, they were still young at heart, and I have used that couple’s enthusiasm as a source of inspiration in my life. I keep a list of things to do before I die, and as soon as I got back from Florida I got it out and wrote the words, “kegstand at 70.”
