I Live Where You Spring Break

Miami, Florida is a vacation spot for thousands of college students every spring break. But it’s also my home.

Walking down the hallways during the first week of spring semester, I hear groups of friends talking about their plans for spring break. Eight out of 10 times they talk about how great it would be to vacation in Miami.

In an ideal world, those of us who live in Miami go home and relax. We enjoy time with our friends and family at the beach and get some much-needed vitamin D (if you go to school further North like me then you understand the need to feel the sun on your skin after a long, cold winter).

But, unfortunately this isn’t the case when I fly home for spring break. First off, the flights feel way more compact, filled with students flying to their vacation spot.

I typically go home and spend the first day or two basking in the peaceful feeling of being with my family. Afterwards, I get a bit antsy. I don’t like to feel trapped in my house all day, so I make plans with my friends or run errands with my mom.

I also love taking my niece to the jungle gym we have outside for her to play around. I’m leaning back in a chair, absorbing the rays of the sun while she’s jumping on the mini-trampoline or hesitantly coming down the slide.

I would love to take my niece with my family to the beach, but that’s not a possibility.

The beach overcrowds with thousands of intoxicated college students. I avoid the area at all costs.

Women line the shores of Miami Beach, Hollywood Beach, etc. Guys party it up with their friends, trying showing off and see who’s having the best spring break ever.

And it’s great that they’re at the beach and enjoying themselves with their friends. The problem is the hundreds of college students getting drunk and acting wild. The beach becomes a place that families must completely avoid like the plague. Parents don’t want their kids to see any of that.

You see videos on Twitter and Snapchat of all these parties that take place on the beach. The spring breakers are clearly enjoying themselves.

But their stay is like that of a hurricane. They get so caught up in the storm that they only leave behind utter destruction.

The photos posted on social media show the havoc wreaked on the beaches and streets in the surrounding areas. Those people care about having a good time and enjoying their break. But they could care less about acting like decent human beings and picking up after themselves.

These beautiful beaches become tainted with beer cans, wine bottles, vomit and other unidentifiable objects. It’s completely gross.

Most college students spend the week raging, party after party, sometimes only remembering bits and pieces. They take photos with their friends so they can look back and remember their amazing spring break in Miami. Once it’s time to go back to school, they stop, take their belongings and go. They don’t consider, or maybe even realize, how much they damaged the city that they once admired for its gorgeous sceneries.

Like I said before, it’s wonderful that these college students enjoy themselves and create memories. But it would also be great if they would remember that people do continue living there after they head back to the airport.

Miami is my home. I would appreciate if visitors, spring breakers specifically, could make sure they leave the beaches beautiful and clean after using it for their vacation.

I live where other college students love to spend their spring break. I’ve come to feel proud of that. However, people need to respect of the city they supposedly yearned use for vacation.