School Days
A spring break away
with friends? Not yet
Spring break is coming. That means a trip to the swim shop, day dreams of somewhere warm, and a very patriotic yearn for freedom – from school. This has been the case forever for this generation of teens, and merely looking at the calendar can make them nostalgic. Yet, somehow, at this grade, something is different.
When you’re younger, any vacation is a dream vacation. It’s new, it’s exciting; and whenever you stop for gas, somehow the trip makes it a little easier to convince your parents to get you that Hershey bar. However, once you hit 15, you start to crave a little independence. So what exactly are teens doing this spring break?
Bradlea, Abby, Kaitlyn, Vlad and Sabrina are all freshmen at Churchill Junior High School. They’re good students, and while they’re really excited for spring break, things could have gone a little differently.
Bradlea is staying home this year, but wishes she could go away. Abby is staying home, and will spend the break with a friend who is staying home as well; she may go to Florida with her family, but she feels that she would “miss out” on what her friends are doing while she’s gone. Kaitlyn is making sure she doesn’t miss an upcoming teen night at a local club. She wouldn’t mind a vacation. Vlad isn’t sure exactly what he’s doing, but he isn’t leaving the tri-state area. Sabrina is staying home.
Both Bradlea and Sabrina have watched their older siblings go away, and they find the transition between wanting to go away with your family and wanting to go away with your friends exponentially more difficult.
So, most of these kids are begrudgingly staying home. New Jersey has a beach, and malls, and restaurants. What else could they want?
It is generally agreed on by the group that a beach is desirable. Bradlea would go to the Bahamas so she could swim in the ocean, or a pool. Abby dreams of Jamaica; she is a water lover herself, and loves the appealing qualities of resorts. Kaitlyn loves Florida, and wouldn’t mind going there again. Vlad has an interesting idea about how the perfect spring break would play out. He would go to Hong Kong. Its biggest airport has won all sorts of awards, and he would like to be a pilot. Sabrina, like many teens, wishes she could go to Miami for MTV’s spring break celebration.
The most consistent thing they all said was that they would go with a large co-ed group, but “never at this age” would they be able to do so.
It’s quite shocking that someone would ever want to leave New Jersey; it is the Garden State.
Molly Magier, 14, is a ninth-grade
student at Churchill Junior High School, East Brunswick