Vacation from life

Amidst the craziness of so-called "dead week" and the obsessive studying for upcoming finals, my friend Becky Phillips and I thought it was a good idea to take a break from the madness. We hit the road Thursday night and took turns driving for 12 hours straight. After listening to one upbeat CD after another and drinking countless caffeine-loaded drinks, we were ready to crash. But we made it to Virginia Beach Friday morning, checked in to our oceanfront hotel early and hit the beach.\nAlthough the weather might have been worse there than in Bloomington (it was 54 degrees and foggy), we met up with some friends, forgot about school for a little while and partied our finals week cares away. Just being on the beach was enough to make us completely forget that we would be up all night Monday studying for our Tuesday exams. The sound of crashing waves drowned out the voices of our professors telling us to keep our eyes on our own papers and to use a No. 2 pencil. \nThere aren't many times in your life when you can just take a four-day weekend to get away from life. Random road trips are a luxury we grant ourselves in college that likely won't be granted to us in the future. Professors probably won't mind (or even notice) if we don't show up for a few days. But someday soon, bosses will. \n"None of us get what it means to graduate," senior Kate Littman said. "And we won't until we've been out for a month or so." \nShe's going on to grad school at Columbia and said that these are the last few days she will be spending with her friends before dispersing to jobs and universities all over the country. \nI keep saying how jealous I am of the seniors. They're getting out and getting on to something real. But I see some of them getting scared about what's coming. They finally have to be responsible. They finally have to grow up. They finally have to become adults. \nSure, you'll still order late night pizza and kick back with a beer. There will still be fun nights at the bars and probably even a random hookup here and there. But, come 7 a.m., you can't hit the snooze button and decide that you can afford to skip your 8 a.m. one more time this semester. You have to get up and drag your hung over self into work and be presentable and productive. \n So, as "the best years of your life" come to an end for the many graduating seniors, finals week is not a time for last-minute cramming and countless hours spent at the library. If you're going to pull an all-nighter, do it by having a movie marathon with your friends and enjoying your last order of Pizza Express breadsticks. \nThis week, let go of your anxieties about getting a job and entering the real world and celebrate the things you've taken for granted the last four (or five or six) years. Bloomington might always be here, but you won't. Be a carefree college student while you still can. Have a party, go out with your friends or, better yet, take a road trip to Virginia Beach.