BY MADDY KROMER, WILL KEMPER AND OWEN DINGLE
Spring break is one of the most exciting times of the school year for students. It’s an opportunity for them to get away from their school work, to have fun and relax with their friends and family. Some students stay home over break, but others travel, typically to warmer destinations to get away from the unpredictable Ohio weather. Spring break marks the end of the worst part of the school year and the beginning of the best.
“The third quarter of the school year is the biggest drag,” said sophomore Charlotte Coates.
This is a popular opinion for good reason: the third quarter is a time of the year where teachers load on the homework, tests, and assignments. There’s only one thing worth looking forward to in third quarter: the end of it and spring break.
One of the most popular spring break destinations for Mariemont students is Rosemary Beach, Florida. For the last several years, many students, typically seniors, have traveled there for their week off of school.
Cole Harden is one of the many seniors who went to Rosemary this year. He says, “When spring break approaches each year, I get excited because I love hanging out with my friends and making new ones, too.”
Harden has gone to Rosemary Beach for the past two years, along with many of his Mariemont friends.
Similar to Harden, sophomore JP Normile went to Rosemary Beach this year and said, “I go to a different place every year, but I had a wonderful time in Rosemary.” Normile adds, “I love spring break because I don’t have to do any homework.”
Senior Miller Steele has been going to Rosemary Beach for spring break for a number of years now. “I go to Brosmary with the boys to have a good time,” Steele said. “Being in the panhandle of Florida, sometimes the weather isn’t extraordinary. We’ve had some rainy days in the past, but it’s still always a super fun week.”
Another popular destination is Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Every year, the Mariemont baseball team travels to Myrtle Beach and participates in a round robin. They play four games in the span of three days. Senior Quinn Drigget, who went to Myrtle, says, “The best part of break was playing Fortnite in the hotel room with the boys.”
There are many other places Mariemont students travel to during break. Senior Kyra George goes to a different location each year with her friends and family. George said, “I went to Playa del Carmen this year and had so much fun. I look forward to spring break each year because I love getting tan and getting out of Ohio.”
Junior Payton Megowen went to Siesta Key, Florida this year. Megowen went to Mexico her freshman and sophomore year, and says, “Siesta was different from Mexico but really fun because I had more of an opportunity to meet new people.” She also says, “I love travelling over spring break because I always go somewhere a lot warmer than Ohio.”
For the staycationers, spring break is “not very eventful,” but just as relaxing, says senior Max Hobart. He usually travels over break, but he stayed home this year. Hobart says, “My spring break was very boring. I worked out, watched Netflix, and hung out with the people who were also home.”
Seniors Alexandra Kauffman and Cassidy Bollman stayed in Cincinnati for spring break as well.
“It was rainy and gloomy which sucked, but Cassidy and I made the best of it,” says Kauffman. “We made a bucket list of fun things to do indoors like cook a fancy meal, visit the butterfly show, go bowling, go to new restaurants, and go to a hockey game.”
Bollman says, “The rain sucked, but I didn’t let it keep me inside all week. I went out with everyone else who was in town, which was fun.”
Although most people enjoy their break, sometimes it doesn’t go as planned. The serenity of spring break was spoiled for several students this year. Although no Mariemont students were arrested this year, there were still predicaments that arose over their week long vacations.
Senior Tyler Lundeberg and several of his friends who went to Rosemary were robbed the last night of their stay. “We went to the beach for the last time, and when we came back, our rooms were messy and our stuff was all over the ground. We realized that all of our valuable items had been stolen, like our wallets, school backpacks, and RayBans,” said Lundeberg.
Lundeberg said, “I sold all my baseball equipment and my Raybans to pay for that trip, so getting so much of my money and things taken was really frustrating.”
Members of the baseball team had a hard time enjoying their break because of the weather in Myrtle Beach. Driggett said, “The worst part of the week was getting up at seven in the morning to play baseball in the 30-degree weather. It would have been a lot nicer if it was warmer out.”
Junior Michael Rubin agrees with Driggett. “Playing baseball in the cold Myrtle Beach weather was not something I enjoyed about my spring break,” he said.
Sophomore Will Stutenroth also faced some difficulties on his trip. Stutenroth went to The Grand Canyon in Arizona with the Paz family for his spring break trip.
“So we were in the visitors center on the first day before we even started hiking, and I ran into this big door, and I got a pretty decent sized cut below my eyebrow,” Stutenroth said. “I needed stitches, but there was nowhere to get stitches nearby.”
Stutenroth went the remainder of the trip without getting medical attention, and his girlfriend, Ellie Poindexter, thought that was “really hot.”
“I think it’s super attractive when a man doesn’t have to go to the hospital, and he can suck up his own pain,” Poindexter said.
Although science teacher Mr. Hewitt had a great spring break this year, he wasn’t as fortunate in the past. “I had a bad spring break experience in college. My buddies and I went on a road trip and stopped at multiple locations for our spring break. Our plan was to camp on the beach. It turns out the beach was closed, and we had to spend the night in the car.” Hewitt adds, “It was cold and windy and there were five of us sleeping in a car with five seats, so everyone was really uncomfortable the whole night.”
Spring break is a time that everyone looks forward to, but sometimes, the plans we make don’t happen the way we want them to. But, that’s the beauty of adventure. If everything always went smoothly, would spring break really be that much fun?