A Trip to Florida
In 2015, my brother was a senior in college and over his Spring break, my sister and I went on a road trip with him down to Florida. It was the first time we ever drove straight through Florida and back, which I thought was a lot of fun. We visited my cousins, aunt and uncle who live down there and I had a great time.
While I have been in college, I have never done anything very exciting over Spring break. Usually, it is a week at home where I relax and spend time with friends and family. However, this year, my senior year, our family is taking another trip down to Florida. My mom and dad are flying down and meeting us there. Most of my siblings, my boyfriend and I are driving down to Naples, Florida, to spend a week with my aunt and uncle. Originally, we were all going to fly, but to save some money, and in my opinion, have more fun, the “kids” are driving. I love spending time with my siblings and I know we will all make jokes and tell stories along the way. We might make a stop along the way to visit my cousins in Tampa, but most of the week will be spent with my aunt and uncle.
I am excited because I have not seen them much since 2015, except for two days when we went to Florida for my cousin’s wedding, the summer of 2018. It will be nice to spend time with them, especially because my uncle had been really sick. My aunt wasn’t sure if he could be treated, but he is doing better now and is looking forward to spending time with us.
While there, we do not have any set plans yet. However, we are planning on going to the beach and I am hoping to go to my favorite store, Papaya, which I have only found down south. Honestly, no matter what we end up doing, I will have a great time with my family and I am excited to spend Spring break away from home.
by: Maggie Lauer
A Trip to Paris
I’m being a tourist over spring break. I’m going to Paris, France, with two of my friends, and yes, we are going to do all of the cliche things. Is that a bad thing? Modern travel gurus always urge people to go somewhere different, to do all the things that no one else is doing, and yet, isn’t there some value in doing what has been done?
Yes, we’re going to the Eiffel Tower. We’re going to go up to the very top (don’t worry, we’ve already bought tickets, otherwise we’d never get up there) and then in the evening we’re going to have a picnic in front of the Tower’s lights. And we will do that with other tourists who are just as enchanted by it as we are, dozens of other people who are experiencing a shared sense of wonder at seeing the thing that has haunted our books and movies and the odd spaces between our synapses.
There is a good argument for doing different things, admittedly. With air travel becoming more and more affordable for people all over the world, the classic haunts like Paris and Venice have become difficult for residents to survive in, and old monuments are deteriorating faster than ever because of the heavy traffic that flows by them every day. If someone doesn’t really want to see Paris all that much, and they’d much rather see the capital city of Kazakhstan (which, by the way, looks pretty cool), then yes, by all means, go somewhere new. Stray from the beaten path.
But it seems sometimes as though the insatiable appetite for originality has infiltrated even travel. We must be different from everyone else, all the time, otherwise we are thought of as stale, boring, a pack-animal and a rule-follower.
There is also an argument for doing what has been done before. For seeing the things that people have seen for hundreds of years, because there is something exquisitely beautiful about them and because they may be lost without warning. I cannot help but think of Notre Dame, now, as I visit Paris too late to see it whole and beautiful. So yes, I want to see all the glory of Versailles, smear butter and jam on a baguette, cram into the Louvre with a thousand other people just to gawp at the tiny Mona Lisa. If I don’t do it now, I may never get the chance.
by: Megan Mahoney