By Tim Chermak
As the college spring break season winds down to a painful finale, let us pause to remember the glory days of our youth — beautiful Caribbean beaches, random hookups, binge drinking, morning hangovers, and crappy hotels.
This was the life. This justified a little credit card debt. Not too much, but a little. This was the mountaintop experience of spring semester, the epicenter of our social lives, the seven days on which we spent seven weeks’ income — this was spring break.
For years we viewed these sacred March days as an escape from the ordinary. We spent the weeks leading up to our seven-day liberation studying for midterms, saving up last minute cash, and trying to lose our college beer bellies.
The mundane existence that defined our lives was about to be forgotten, if only for seven days, and we couldn’t wait to hop the fence.
What if things were different? What if there was no fence to hop? What if our lives didn’t resemble a prison? What if there was no need to escape?
“Escaping from the ordinary” assumes that the ordinary we are fleeing from is somehow less than ideal. When we live for vacations, we treat everyday life as an unfortunate but necessary phase in our existence, a sort of valley leading to the summit.
What if escape wasn’t necessary?
Many of us treat the afterlife in the same way. Like our Greek predecessors, we view human embodiment as a trap-something that needs to be escaped. The modern idea of “floating to Heaven” isn’t Christian at all; in fact, it’s in direct opposition to the Christian idea of resurrection. If we gave Earth the same respect we did Heaven, things would be very different.
Very different.
Which brings us back to our annual Cancun fantasy. I realize this is scandalous, but what if our lives weren’t boring? What if we actually enjoyed the “routine” that defines our day-to-day existence? What if-and this is a big what if-the passion that surrounded our March holy week was an everyday occurrence?
What if escape wasn’t necessary?
Escape has always been a romantic idea because it stands for progress, it symbolizes hope, and it stirs a passion deep in our souls for new beginnings. To be honest, it’s rooted in fear. We’re afraid we’ll never enjoy life if we don’t get out and “live a little.”
This artificial fear drives us to divide our lives into separate compartments of ordinary and extraordinary. Extraordinary is then reserved for one week out of the year, which means we spend 98% of our time wishing, wanting, and waiting-living in the ordinary.
What if escape wasn’t necessary?
A wise man once said, “There is no fear in love,” for “perfect love casts out all fear.” Aside from tequila and tanning, what if the same energy that fueled us during spring break powered our lives every day of the year? What would our careers look like? Our families? Our relationships? Our faith?
In a world dissatisfied with 98% of life, dare to embrace the whole thing. Dare to live life like a giant road trip. Dare to have so much fun you forget the meaning of “vacation.” Dare to have so much fun you forget to take a vacation.
If escape wasn’t necessary, how would you live?
Tim is a writer hoping that somehow, someway, his work will influence the world in a positive way. He is currently an undergraduate student at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan.