SB2K11

There is no single definition for the term “Spring Break”, and it’s meaning to Ole Miss students differs as much as the destinations that they choose for their week away campus. To some, the break provides much needed relaxation and a release from school at home with parents and friends. Some may use the week for personal gain, such as applying for jobs. To others, seven consecutive days of zero academic obligations creates the perfect setting for wobbly late nights, Bloody Mary mornings, and maybe even lustful romance.

When Jet Ellis, an Ole Miss senior from Abilene, Texas, was asked what “Spring Break” meant to him, he talked about the opportunity to see family and friends that he rarely spends time with due to the enormous distance between Oxford and his home in West Texas.

“With about a twelve hour drive ahead of me every time I go home to Abilene, I usually wait until the holidays or the summer to make the trip to see my family. I only go home about once or twice a semester,” said Ellis.

While Jet was excited and determined to spend a week at home, other students do not share the same enthusiasm about living under their parent’s shadow, even for one short week.

George Bordelon, a double major in finance and economics from Hattiesburg, Mississippi, is spending his spring break at home for entirely different reasons. He said he is only going home because of important job interviews and a looming graduation date.

“Honestly, I’d rather be getting hammered and sunburnt with my fraternity brothers in Destin, but this is the only chance I had to schedule these job interviews. My parents don’t really support my lifestyle, so I really need a job because I don’t want to move back under their control in May. It was now or never,” said Bordelon.

Still other college students had no intentions to see family or prepare themselves for the future. Many Ole Miss students are looking forward to a marathon of partying with old friends and, if all goes right, maybe even some new friends. It was not hard to find a student determined to spend Spring Break drinking cheap beer on the beach and looking for an extremely short-term relationship.

An Ole Miss Sophomore who preferred to remain anonymous from Wilmington, North Carolina, said his goals for the week of Spring Break revolved purely around partying and trying to find a random hook-up. He and a group of friends are renting a condo in Orange Beach, Alabama for the week.

“This is the only time of the year when my only goal for each day is to get as drunk as possible and hopefully meet some girls on the beach. I can’t act like that in Oxford because people will talk about it. Everybody knows that what happens on Spring Break, stays on Spring Break, so I feel like I can act as crazy as I want,” said the student.

So, how do “You” Spring Break? It doesn’t really matter. The goals of Ole Miss students for their week off are all across the board. It just depends on what you are looking for.

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