Three days until spring break – the mantra of today to be followed by “Two days until spring break” Wednesday.

One of the best aspects of second semester is the respite in the middle. Whereas in the fall we must endure midterms and then another full month of class before the much-needed Thanksgiving week off, spring break, the stereotypical nine days of debauchery, arrives almost immediately after the exams. Amen to that.

I must confess, though, that I have never taken a typical spring break trip – not in high school nor in any of my previous 27 years of college. Once I was privileged enough to visit two friends from high school in England, but that was more of a fantastic experience than a week celebrating freedom from true responsibility, as spring break inevitably does. This year the streak ends in Vegas.

Even for those who do not drink, gamble, or enjoy strip clubs, Las Vegas is supposed to be an exciting city. Shows, glamour and glitz pervade everything. One minute you stand at the base of the Eiffel Tower and the next you revel in Sinatra’s paradise. Though it offers substantial night life for the aged, the distinction of being the archetypal spring break locale belongs to Florida and Mexico. Warmth, sun and “College Girls Gone Wild” better befit the classless week in March. However, spring break is not about where, what, or how much. The vacation is about who, or more properly, with whom.

The exciting part of living in a college town is that most people are approximately the same (youthful) age. Paring down the student population to good friends, mixing in warm weather and nixing obligation can only augment the fun. Inarguably, the best moments in life come with friends or family. Spring break trips are vacations (always a good thing) with those people yet without work. What better combination could exist?

Many argue that college itself is about the same thing: fun and more fun. These would be the people who struggle to graduate. There is a partial truth to that philosophy, though, that the vernal vacation embodies. For most people, a university education entails classes, projects, homework and extracurricular activities combined with an enormous amount of individual responsibility. Balancing time, checkbooks, schedules and a social life is not easy, especially for the new children on campus. Some people never learn when to be responsible and when to relax, emphasizing one or the other until burnout or bankruptcy.

Achieving life equilibrium is the single most important ability gained in college. Most substantive class work for many majors is specifically pointless in the real world. Jobs depend on the skills developed (writing, comprehension, problem solving and group work) more than the content (Chinese history, calculus). One can only hope students take classes on topics they enjoy and develop skills along the way so as to make studies tolerable if not enjoyable.

Spring break, then, is like the final exam of this ultimate collegiate lesson. It involves project management, communication and fiscal responsibility to produce a quality result. Those who can put together a successful spring break have learned both the skills necessary for success in the job world as well as the imperative of adding pleasure to life to make business more productive.

As for my trip to Sin City, I can no longer contain my enthusiasm. Twenty-five of the most fun people I have ever known going to Las Vegas – a city I have never visited and whose fundamental philosophy of greed and spectacle reviles my core – as a group for some sun, relaxation and volleyball, could not be more appealing right now. Sadly, though, real life persists for yet another week, with my semester and thus graduation hanging in the balance. Three more days until spring break, one week until Las Vegas…

Lee is a senior in mechanical engineering and wishes everyone a safe, enjoyable and work-free week off.