High schoolers and college students can never wait for spring break. Most adults see us as party animals who venture to Florida, Mexico, or whatever other hot spot to get away from our parents and make “bad decisions.” The illusory notion behind spring break is that we use it as an excuse to party, but to us it’s an escape from our stressful reality.

We as students are put under constant stress that if we do anything lower than perfect, we’ll fail.  To an adult, our stress doesn’t compare to theirs because they have bills and a family to support, and we understand that. But our entire future is based off grades, SAT and ACT scores, and now, how advanced our leadership skills are. Because of this, we study for hours on end; some of us have sports on top of it or other after school activities, which add even more stress because we have to keep our GPA up to be involved in school activities. On top of that, some have jobs or other obligations; and you wonder why we’re so tired all the time.

Spring break, for us, is something equivalent to a night without children for parents. You get to focus on you and your happiness. You don’t have to be here at this time doing this thing, then having to immediately do something else without any breaks. While I can’t speak for everyone, I do speak for most when I say that spring break is more than a party, it’s a breath. You get to sit back and smell the roses and appreciate life for the short week that you get.