I do not think it’s much of a secret that college students look forward to vacations. Whether it is a day off, spring break, or the two biggest ones of all, summer and winter vacation, college students look forward to not having to go to class.
For me, I look forward to not having to make the commute during rush hour and instead, having that time to sleep or just plain do nothing.
Something interesting happened during my break though. While watching John Cusack in “Better Off Dead” for, let’s say, the fifty-seventh time in one week, my brother said, “You’re at that bad age. You’re not 21 and there’s nothing to do.” At the time he was right.
After some thinking though, I realized that he could not have been more wrong.
For the first week off, I did absolutely nothing. I was going to go to the gym, but my brand-new digital cable wasn’t letting me out of the house. I was going to finish up my Christmas shopping in New York City, but I did not feel like making the drive just to blow all my money. Lastly, I was going to go to Penn State with some friends, but leaving at nine in the morning didn’t sound too enticing at 8:51 a.m.
After hearing my brother’s comments though, I realized that I needed to get out and do something. That’s just what I did. For me, back in high school, things always seemed taboo. It was wrong to do anything that seemed remotely enjoyable unless of course it involved drinking, which was almost always followed by getting sick. Thankfully, after two years out of high school, I know that the world is a much different place.
So instead of sitting around, waiting on a phone call that would most likely just be someone not having anything new to do, I tried some things I would have never thought to do.
My best example is only two words: disco bowling. I can tell there are people shaking their heads right now like I’m some sort of massive dork. I’ll get over it.
The fact is, I haven’t bowled in about eight years, much less disco bowled. It’s nothing incredibly crazy. They just let you request music and there’s a lot of flashy lights, but it was something different and actually a lot of fun. And the best thing about it was that I actually beat the two people that I was playing against.
I went ice-skating for the first time in about five years too. If you saw me doing it, I think my lack of experience would have been pretty obvious. The only real saving grace was, though I had the least experience, I was the only one of my friends that did not wipe out.
The idea I was trying to get across with this was that there’s always something to do. I have had people complaining about not getting into bars or wishing they were 21, like that would help change their world completely. Come on people, bars are a bottomless pit for your money.
Even if your night consists of sitting around with friends, laughing and watching a movie like “Labyrinth,” yes I did that too, it can still be a good time. These people are not really bored. They are just lazy. There is always something to do. So if anyone wants to go disco bowling, give me a call.
