Ok, spring is nearly upon us, winter’s legitimate reason for petering out. A few more cold days have befallen us, in addition to a piddling amount of snow, but the Old Man has officially given us his three weeks notice. People have begun accepting this defiled winter, resigning themselves to some seriously muddy days to come. But, of course, there is one aspect of this whole shebang that makes everyone happy: that hovering angel, spring break. Such a vacation is pleasurable to all, whether for its merit in allowing folks to see their families, recharge from intense academics or party with consequences that UVM won’t know about for a while. Of course, others will. If you’re indulging in a typical spring break getaway and you get caught with your pants down, aside from a civil disobedience charge that forever bars you from Virginia Beach, you might find yourself with a variety of bad p.r. in different states. True, no one from UVM will be peeping over your shoulder to slap you either literally or with disciplinary measures, but we carry memories wherever life may so find us. Fortunately, though, not everyone thinks in terms of what they can pass off as acceptable on spring break. Some people relish in the thought of helping their parents and siblings out for the week, savoring reunion hugs and homecooked meals. And yet others are going to be participating in Alternative Spring Break, a series of community service projects arranged by UVM, ripe for students to aid. These ladies and fellows are currently experiencing, as almost tangible, firmly gripping hammers to deliver neat, direct blows to boards and nails. Another crop of some students and professors, if so deciding to pursue academics during break, can at least do so more calmly and peaceably than would be so possible in the midst of the general schoolyear hullabaloo. However, regardless of how many reasons one can enumerate for why the flock flees for das celebration of greener things to come, there are still more. Innumerably more, ranging from being able to again run on one’s own home turf, to teaching very young children the fundamentals of reading, to bronzing one’s pallid Vermont skin. After spring break, a renewed love can emerge between roommates, between significant others and even between students and studies. Not nearly the expanse of time that is winter break, spring break allocates to all uvmissaries a few brief moments to collect their thoughts, sentimental items forgotten at home and numbers of attractive prospects. Bear in mind, though, please, that spring break is indeed short; growing accustomed to its usually slower pace is never advisable. Upon returning to UVM, there is work to be done, and those assignments and their assigners will not be sympathetic to the holdover of general malaise that fills people during allotted downtime. They will expect attendance and compliance-not weather reports from the Caribbean. Unless they were there, too.
