{"id":2086,"date":"2015-03-19T09:00:52","date_gmt":"2015-03-19T13:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/?p=2086"},"modified":"2015-03-19T09:00:52","modified_gmt":"2015-03-19T13:00:52","slug":"students-offer-insights-into-alternative-spring-break","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/2015\/03\/19\/students-offer-insights-into-alternative-spring-break\/","title":{"rendered":"Students Offer Insights Into Alternative Spring Break"},"content":{"rendered":"

BY IRINI BROM – CENTO WRITER<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Spring break \u2014 the short-lived break we receive each year where, for one whole week, thinking about school is taboo and doing homework is forbidden. Usually for this break, students jet off to the hottest beach or the nearest college town to participate in debauchery so creative that even Captain Jack Sparrow would be proud.<\/p>\n

But what\u2019s out there for the students who don\u2019t want to spend all their savings solely on one week of entertainment? Are students fated these days to choose between going crazy in the sand or staying on a dead campus? Not according to senior Rita Basconi, who decided as a first-year to try something different than the typical spring break vacation and went on a trip aptly named, \u201cAlternative Spring Break (ASB).\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAlternative Spring Break is an option for people who aren’t so keen on the \u2018party spring break\u2019 scene to still have an incredible week, meet new Centre students, and do service work in another city,\u201d Basconi said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s cheap, open to all students, and they offer different destinations each year. When I went on ASB, we went to Destin, Florida. What I gained from ASB was more than I could’ve gotten from going to Daytona or Panama for a week–or even a million weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Basconi valued her experience, she also remembered the dynamics of her group.<\/p>\n

\u201cI recall getting into one of the minivans we were taking down to Destin, and finding myself surrounded by five people I’d never seen before, and one person I kind of knew. From what I observed in the short time we sat\u00a0in the\u00a0parking lot, waiting to leave, this was a rambunctious group of close friends\u00a0and I could tell the next ten hours were going to be entertaining, at the\u00a0least,\u201d Basconi said. \u201cThose next ten hours\u00a0certainly were\u00a0entertaining, as were the next seven\u00a0days, and even my next two years at Centre, before they all graduated. Sitting in that van with those crazy people turned out to be one of the best decisions of my life because I haven’t stopped talking to those people since that day three years ago. In fact–this\u00a0year\u00a0I have\u00a0convinced them all to join me in taking my<\/em> spring break and\u00a0we are all meeting\u00a0in DC for a few days. So basically, I’ll\u00a0never have known a Centre spring break without these people and I wouldn’t have it any other way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Doing service projects is always a good way to give back to the community as well as making the most productive use of your spring break, but are those your only two options? Go on spring break with your friends to Florida or go do community service with a group of strangers? Junior Jean VanNoppen opted for a third option when deciding her spring break plans this year \u2014 going home. Now while that may seem like a fate worse than death for some students on campus, if you really stop to think about it, you\u2019ll realize that sometimes going home is just what the doctor ordered. Not only is home where the heart is, but it\u2019s also where the fridge is always stocked, your pets are available for snuggles upon request, and your spot on the couch still has your imprint from where you sat in it for three days straight last break. Not to mention seeing your family as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the past two spring breaks I have gone skiing with my family in either Colorado or Utah,\u201d VanNoppen said. \u201cOther than obvious reasons, I went because skiing\/snowboarding is a wonderful way to close out the winter season, and the spring break weather is perfect for it. This year, I can honestly say I\u2019m going home because I miss my family. I definitely plan to sleep in, stay up late, watch T.V., and relax every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

But what about making great memories with your friends?<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like I am missing out a little,\u201d VanNoppen said. \u201cI live with my friends and we see each other every day and have great times together. My family, on the other hand, I see far less often. In my mind, seeing them is what breaks are for.\u201d<\/p>\n

And what about ASB? Was it worth it? Would you have rather gone with your friends somewhere else? Not Basconi.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I could do that\u00a0ASB all over again, I wouldn’t change a thing. Except wearing\u00a0sunscreen,\u201d Basconsi said.<\/p>\n

It seems that whether you plan to bronze it up on the beach, spend your break giving back to the community, or peacefully rest at home with your loved ones, there really is no wrong decision when it comes to how you spend your seven blissful days known as \u201cspring break.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY IRINI BROM – CENTO WRITER Spring break \u2014 the short-lived break we receive each year where, for one whole week, thinking about school is taboo and doing homework is forbidden. Usually for this break, students jet off to the hottest beach or the nearest college town to participate in debauchery so creative that even […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2086","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2086"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2086\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}