Until about 5 a.m. on Saturday, February 19, I’d never seen the ocean. I’d seen pictures of it, of course, and I went to Cancun when I was eight years old, but neither really counts. My apprehension towards tropical places was amplified by the hordes of inexcusable “douchebags” I had heard populate such places. If you’ve ever seen any sort of television program depicting spring break, you know what I’m talking about (lots of visors and light beer). The notion of Spring Break was always off-putting, simply because of these images that were conjured in my mind of reckless, annoying young people terrorizing eastern Mexico for a week, leaving nothing behind but spilled alcohol, bodily fluids, and regret in their wake. Dignity is lost, and so is my lunch.

But this past week, as a final hurrah before the inevitable pain of graduation, 19 of my best friends and I went to the Dominican Republic. I was surprised to be met not by the cast of the Jersey Shore, but by hundreds of families, older couples, and two very intoxicated, very sloppy girls, among others, cavorting on a beach. But what I found most interesting of all was how my group and I behaved: very much like university students. We played flip cup, went “clubbing,” and spent as much time together as possible. What I witnessed was not us destroying paradise, but simply doing what people our age would be doing on any given party night. Granted, we were in shorts and summer dresses, and we did it poolside or by the ocean, but I was still compelled to act like somewhat of a decent person. Clean-ups eventually happened. Our room was kept in order. And most importantly, we didn’t terrorize the people around us.

Yes, we received a single noise complaint. But, it’s almost inspiring to hear a father of two say, in a wonderful British accent, “Totally not your fault, so don’t apologize. The resort should have put you kids in your own building. You should be having fun. I’m a partier too!” That was pretty insightful, to say the least.

I realized during Reading Week that young people on vacation mostly act like young people. We are loud, obnoxious, full of alcohol and buffet food, and we just want to have fun. We hopefully won’t be acting this way in 10 years, so this is our chance to be young and stupid and go swimming (sans certain garments) at 3 a.m. just because we can.

This seems like a very spoiled thing to say, but I’ve never been able to go travelling or sunbathing before. For years now, I have worked intensely throughout the summer months, and vacations were just not possible. I work to pay for my education, and when I have an opportunity to see something I’ve never seen, to be somewhere I’ve never been, I’m going to take advantage of it. And I definitely did. There were no wet t-shirt contests or Pepsi-sponsored events: it was just a group of friends, in a warm place, drinking fruity drinks and Brahma while trying to make the best of seven days removed from ice and snow. And believe me, we did. I recommend a Cancun vacation to everyone.

Also, I went horseback riding. That was excellent.