We’re halfway through the month of March. In a normal school year this would mean a week off from classwork in order to recharge and going on vacation with friends and family. But like many other universities, Eastern has replaced a normal spring break with wellness days spread throughout the semester, not giving students the chance to party. While the reason for this decision is justified (due to the pandemic), it doesn’t mean that there are no students partying on their own time.

Last year during this time I remember seeing news coverage of overcrowded beaches in places like Florida and California. There was an understandable amount of criticism of the many college students who chose to party despite the pandemic and the start of quarantine. After a year of dealing with COVID one could assume that students aren’t making the same mistakes but that isn’t the case.

In the past couple of weeks Florida, particularly Miami, has seen an uptake in spring breakers. Part of this is due to the fact that Florida has lifted many COVID restrictions and partygoers have used that as an excuse to do anything they want. The main concern being that thousands of people have flocked to beaches mask-less and without social distancing.

The implementation of altered and redistributed spring break days has done well at keeping the majority of university students from partying and potentially spreading COVID, however, it has harmed them in some ways too. Although spring break is mainly looked at as an excuse to go out and party, many students look forward to it so they can get a well-deserved break from their academic work. It can be overwhelming and exhausting for college students to have to work for several weeks in a row.

Compared to the fall semester, during which we had a break that gave us the opportunity to relax and prepare for finals, the wellness days help to some degree but don’t truly allow for a proper mental break from students. I and many of my friends usually spend the wellness days catching up on homework or sleeping; the wellness days only help for a short amount of time. We as students are stuck between the practicality of having no real break for safety reasons, and the annoyance of having constant schoolwork take a toll on our mental health.

Destiny Blanchard is a junior management major. She can be reached at 581-2812 or dblanchard@eiu.edu.