Well, we’re back from spring break. I hope that everyone had a good time and that nobody has any regrets … although lots of people could. It seems to me that once you’re in college, spring break becomes a bigger deal than it used to be. There seems to be a mass exodus of college students either north or south of the border in the search of legal alcohol. I don’t quite understand this, however, because if you really want to, you can get drunk right here at college. Maybe it tastes better in foreign countries.
Perhaps that’s what you did. According to the Associated Press, 70,000 people were in Cancun, Mexico, during last week. If you were there, maybe you were lucky enough to get on MTV, which was there on location in some quasi-nude state. About the whole MTV thing: I don’t get it. Does it say somewhere on your high school diploma in really fine print, “You have just completed the state educational system and now have the right to act like sexually aware kindergartners”?
Pardon me while I pull out my soap box. I’m sure that the people engaging in those activities had lots of fun, but I just want to let them know, as I’m sure their parents did after seeing their son or daughter in someone else’s bikini, that they are making themselves look like blithering idiots.
I spent my break in Palm Springs with my family. It is easier to vacation with your family because you find that you don’t have to pay for as many things. Palm Springs was an interesting experience as a college student because in my home town of Lake Oswego (please don’t hold that against me), about half of the high school population goes there for spring break. Although I have been separated from the institution of high school for less than a year, I find that I hate all high school students and think that they are the basest creatures on earth. I still maintain that I was never like that, and the lack of all photos of me from the ages of 15-17 is completely coincidental.
Since I was not about to partake in the festivities with the “young ‘uns,” I spent most of my time trying to get enough sun on my Oregonian body to prove that I am, indeed, alive. The other hours were spent either asleep or in the pool. On one occasion, I tried mixing the two with disastrous results.
To summarize: Yes, I was hanging out with my parents, a newfound ability since I joined the collegiate population. No, I didn’t consume alcohol. No, I was never naked in the presence of others, much to my disappointment. Yes, I still had a good time. I haven’t taken any philosophy classes yet, but I know that one exists at the University on ethics. This class should be mandatory for all college students because I think that we may be lacking in that department. May I draw your attention to exhibit A.
By complete happenstance, I caught a segment on MTV called “You Idiot.” This consisted of Blink-182 paying people, likely peers of ours, to do idiotic and humiliating things. The only one that I actually watched was a contest to see which of four men could produce the most impressive feces within 15 minutes of consuming a hearty Mexican meal. They were actually filming the contestants on the throne trying their hardest to be the king of crap! I don’t know what they do south of the border, but here in the U.S. of A., filming people doing the sacred squat is definitely not OK.
The point is not that MTV or Blink-182 initiated this challenge or any other depraved act that might have taken place over the last week. The point is that people accepted it. Not just the people doing it but everyone watching it. Even I, for that moment where I was curious just what moronic thing these people would do, was guilty. Doesn’t it seem wrong? Would you do that in May? Would you do it in Eugene? Why is this special environment created where things can run contrary to “normal life” for this one week out of the year?
We all value our freedom to do what we want. So when young adults are given the circumstances to push their new freedom to the limits, it becomes amplified. But does that mean that we can’t have fun in a socially condoned way? Some people laugh at me when I choose to play catch phrase with my friends or get pie and coffee at Marie Calender’s instead of go partying. Well, I scoff heartily at them. Scoff scoff. Yeah, that’s right. I don’t need your kind of fun, man, I’M HIGH ON LIFE!
I can’t believe I just said that.