The Real Spring Break
April, 2003

 
It's that time again. School's out for a week, and almost all of Novi High School migrates south. Students all across the nation, including Novi, leave their parents behind to join the ongoing party that is Spring Break. A weeklong party notorious for its mischievous activity; it’s easy to see why so many Novi students were eager to leave.

Spring Break has been around forever, but the popularity with students has escalated since the first broadcasting of MTV’s Spring Break. The weeklong show with dancing, music, and more dancing, came about in 1996. With failed attempts to draw viewers in with a group of “reality” Spring Break shows, it seems to have lost its touch over the years. The same can’t be said for Spring Break itself.

For seniors this is the last break before the end of their high school career, and they’re not about to waste it at home. It’s a once in a lifetime chance to leave everything behind: school, homework, jobs, sports, boyfriends/girlfriends, parents etc. While parents sit home and worry about their precious little boy or girl, most teenagers don't think twice about home. Their too busy being men and women. Their too busy with the thousands of girls and guys, the parties, and the nice weather.

Many Novi kids don't get to have a Spring Break, instead they're stuck with just a Spring break. The majority of students simply aren’t old enough to go on Spring Break without their parents. Also, despite popular belief, many students have to pay for things, and they don’t have the money. Others have jobs and / or sports keeping them from leaving Novi for more than a day or two. This group is stuck with a break where less school means more work hours, any water's too cold to swim in, and a tan costs $20. These are the students that answer “watched TV” or “slept a lot”, when the teacher asks what they did over Spring Break. They will spend their break with the "there's always next year" mentality. Who knows, maybe those extra work hours will end up paying for Spring Break next year.

Soon enough it will be back to school, and students will be thrown back into the reality of the hectic last 6 weeks of the school year. That's when the competition will begin on who had the best Spring Break. Stories will be told, and tans will be compared. Then students will come back the next week, and it will all be gone.

In the end, whether you went on Spring Break or Spring break won’t matter. Tans will fade, and so will memories, and the question still remains. Is it really worth it?

(c) 2003 the Novi Information Network
www.novi.org