As the first “normal” Spring Break since 2019 approaches next week, students share their travel plans for the week-long break.
With the COVID-19 pandemic slowing down nearly two years after its outbreak during Spring Break 2020, students can finally make safer travel plans to step back from the stress of school.
Anthropology junior Rachael Housewright said she is driving to visit family outside Denver, as well as going hiking and skiing with her friends and stopping by a few national parks on the way.
“I’m excited to go back outdoors because I feel like we’ve been online for so long that going outside and hiking is really nice,” Housewright said. “I can’t wait to go skiing again. I haven’t skied since I was 12, so I’m excited to go back, especially since the Winter Olympics just happened.”
Housewright said it feels strange to have plans for a week-long break, since students only had one day off last spring semester due to COVID-19.
“Last year we didn’t have one, so it just felt like we went through all the spring semester and then it was suddenly summer,” Housewright said. “That’s been my mindset, and the previous year everything got so messed up during Spring Break and then we immediately went online that it didn’t even feel like I was in college.”
Psychology senior Danniell Smith said with graduation around the corner, she is committing her break to touring graduate schools.
“I’m going to travel to New York for the first part of break to visit my family, and then the second part
I am going to tour grad[uate] schools because I’m potentially looking to go to law school or I want to get a Ph.D. in psychology,” Smith said.
As a senior, Smith said it’s weird she’s only experienced one conventional Spring Break while at A&M.
“It’s been so crazy. Last year we didn’t have Spring Break, and I was so sad; I was devastated,” Smith said. “And then two years ago we had a super crazy increased one. COVID[-19] just derailed every kind of normal college life experience for us. That really sucks, but I guess it’s nice to kind of feel like a sense of normalcy now.”
Biomedical engineering senior Hamzah Ahmed said he plans to spend time with his family in Dallas and reconnect with friends before moving for his post-graduate job.
“I’m looking forward to just spending time with my younger siblings,” Ahmed said. “My little brother is finally coming into his own as far as reading books and my little sister is really starting to grow into herself, so I just really want to spend time with them.”
Ahmed said he didn’t really notice the lack of Spring Break last spring semester.
“I’m not exactly a very adventurous person, so I genuinely didn’t notice anything,” Ahmed said. “Breaks just fly by usually, so in general Spring Break has always kind of been like a distraction from school. It has never generally been as substantial as winter break or summer.”
Ahmed said it’s exciting to see his peers get ready for the break and make plans without the looming threat of a pandemic.
“Obviously, the pandemic is wearing down and now that everybody has hopefully been vaccinated and then boosted, I think it’s nice for everybody to finally come out of their shell and engage in Spring Break,” Ahmed said. “I guess we got the news of a looming threat of rising gas prices and a world war instead, but overall it’s nice to see everybody looks so excited for the first time in a long while.”
