The earliest iterations of the spring break tradition in the United States came in 1936, when the Colgate University swim coach brought his team down to Fort Lauderdale to practice at the Casino Pool. The experiment proved a worthwhile economic opportunity for Fort Lauderdale, which hosted the first College Coaches Swim Forum at the Casino Pool in 1938. The Elbo Room, a dive bar in the Seabreeze Hotel, opened that same year, pushing large numbers of college students, the beach and alcohol into coexistence. The stage was set for the spring break we know today. Fort Lauderdale snagged the clever moniker "Fort Liquordale," and in 1958, 20,000 students traveled to the city, a number that grew to 370,000 in 1985. In 1986, MTV launched its first spring break special from Daytona Beach, whose images reinforced the vacation's reputation for alcoholic and sexual excess. Spring break was firmly entrenched in college culture, and international destinations became more attractive for a younger crowd looking to places with lower drinking ages.
For most of my life, I have interpreted spring break as a fabled experience of near-utopian bacchanalia with fellow youth and warm, sunny weather. In high school, I eagerly anticipated my magical trip to Paradise Island in the Bahamas, a five-day, six-night period defined by freedom, recklessness and incessant raging. It was to be a rite of passage that would prepare me for the partying, alcohol and social adventures that were guaranteed components of the college package deal. The college spring break experience, however, can take these factors to dramatic and potentially dangerous new levels.
Today, 500,000 student visitors travel to Panama City, Florida annually, 150,000 to South Padre Island, Texas and 100,000 to Cancun, Mexico. Between Florida and Texas, students spend $1 billion during break. According to recent surveys given to college females, 83 percent said they experienced more drinking during spring break than on campus, 74 percent noted increased sexual activity, 57 percent felt that being promiscuous was a way to fit in, 83 percent had friends who drank every night of the week and 60 percent had friends who had unprotected sex. On average, both men and women consumed over 10 alcoholic drinks a day, with about half of all students drinking every night until they passed out. Half of the sexual encounters that occurred during spring break were random, unplanned and unprotected. While these statistics may not accurately reflect the actions of all college students, they offer substantial evidence that spring break trips generally encourage, promote and revolve around the consumption of alcohol and sexual escapades.
Jane Goldstein, a sophomore at Emory University, described one such frightening alcohol-driven experience.
"I had five drinks at Aura Nightclub in the Atlantis Hotel this past spring break and all of the sudden I was entirely blacked out," Goldstein said. "My eyes were rolling to the back of my head, and I was dysfunctional. I'm almost positive I was drugged. Some guy tried to feel me up on the dance floor."
What attracts many about spring break is the offer of escape, allowing people to temporarily ignore the stress and rigidity of academics and escape routine, responsibilities, boredom, schoolwork, parents, cold weather, stress and reality. The importance of "getting away" as a motivational factor has long been recognized in travel and tourism literature, as travelers abandon their everyday situations and immerse themselves in a different world.
But spring break trips are in fact characterized by frenzied sexuality and alcohol consumption. Alex Kayden, a sophomore at Franklin and Marshall College, said that college students adhere to a socially constructed script, deeply embedded in our culture that encourages recreational drinking and sex.
Ann Powers, a junior at Northwestern University, found no problem with this week-long experimentation with debauchery.
"College students generally work pretty hard and should have the freedom and opportunity to let loose and have some fun with no inhibitions," she said. "Last spring break, I went to Orlando and went streaking with some guys we met there. It was weird, but I'll never be able to do something so irresponsible again."
Though the actual concept of a spring break vacation a five to ten day hiatus from real life is logical, it has morphed into an orgy of carelessness and a suspension of most cultural and social norms. Having a "fun" spring break necessitates day drinking, sexually scandalous adventures and incessant partying. The nature of spring break may be indicative of our generation's heavy reliance on alcohol and partying as a means to have a good time.
"I think that society as a whole is changing and individuals now, more than ever, are redefining the pursuit of happiness," Powers said. "There are social stigmas about spring break trips and how young adults are generally irresponsible, selfish and coddled. Sure, we may drink too much and be a little slutty, but college students should be allowed and encouraged to make mistakes."
The vacation certainly doesn't have to be this way, and it isn't for all participants. The nature of the quarter system means that, unlike our peers on semester terms, Dartmouth students just finish finals period before departing for tropical locales, and many are simply looking for a wholesome break from academics. Sophie Hasson '15, who vacationed in Hawaii with friends from school, described her trip as a relaxing adventure.
"It definitely wasn't your crazy wet T-shirt contest spring break," Hasson said. "We biked 10 miles a day, went snorkeling, learned to surf, went out to eat, cooked, got tan, read and slept."
Others took advantage of the time off to work or volunteer, like Fredrik Eriksson '16, who participated in the Tucker Foundation's Alternative Spring Break program in West Virginia.
"The group that went down was an awesome bunch of people and we learned a lot," Eriksson said. "Overall, it was a great spring break."
These trips, however, don't make for the juiciest of media and often aren't the stories told in films and novels. As "Spring Breakers" suggests, this rite of passage often serves as mere commodification of adolescent sexuality and the collective desire to party in a worry-free, experimental environment. The film acts as a pop culture poem, described by its director Harmony Korine as an "impressionistic reinterpretation of events." While there may be some truth to the image of spring break as a mess of wet T-shirt contests, booze parties and sex on the beach, one survey found that 91 percent of women believe that what people see in typical TV portrayals of spring break, such as "Girls Gone Wild" videos, perpetuates a negative stereotype of women.
"I think spring break powers the belief that college culture is focused on guys getting with a lot of girls, girls showing off their bodies and being valued just for what they look like and a wild partying world," Goldstein said. "Our parents' generation would never have done something like this."
Spring break offers an opportunity for us to bask in the sun and reawaken our libido, liberating our stressed, caged winter selves. Over 60 years, spring break has been solidly embedded into our culture. Every student wants to claim a crazy story for themselves about that unbelievable week at a cheap, all-inclusive hotel in some Spanish-speaking country, full of wild escapades that will go down in history.
"Spring break is that one week that people tend to abandon some morals in order to embrace the partying culture because it's what's expected, it's the status quo," Kayden said. "We are trying to make the most of college and partying before we graduate and have to become adults in the real world".
So much effort, planning and anticipation is dedicated to a trip that usually lasts no more than a week, but regardless of how unhealthy and potentially dangerous these vacations are, they are a cultural ritual of escape from the stress of a college lifestyle.
