By Justin James

As the ever so long school year comes to a close, one of the months all college students look forward to is March, as they’ve caught what is commonly known as “March Madness.”

March is the perfect month for students, because it reminds them of all the beautiful events and for most of us, exceptional weather.

However, out of all the exciting things to do in the month of March, there’s one event that dwarfs them all.

One week-long event all students seem to cherish the most: Spring Break.

Spring break, what was originally designed as a transition period for most schools’ mid-terms, is now a decorated college holiday consisting of a week-long, stress-relieving party.

That sounds very appealing and fun if one is traveling for the break, but what about the few students that are still around campus?

Those poor souls that have no choice but to stay on campus–what are they supposed to do while the entire school and most of the town is closed?

When walking around the school, one student described the city of Kearney as a “ghost town” during the break. Another university student described it as “you could hear a pen drop across town.”

While Kearney might not look like an exciting town, there have been many students that have had the tough task of sticking around and surviving spring break in the “abandoned” college town, and I’ve gotten some pretty interesting ideas and stories that might help the next brave pioneers of spring breaks here at the University of Nebraska at Kearney.

In a recent interview collage of students that have spent their spring break around or in town, most students found it calming and relaxing. “I spent the spring break here last year and honestly I didn’t mind it at all; it was relaxing to have time off school and not spend so much money in a week. I mean, we’re in college, so most of us can’t really afford to be out anyway,” said an anonymous student.

“Being a college athlete, we’re used to not having many breaks and grinding through the year. It at least relieves the stress of classes for the week and gives us time to catch up on anything that we need done,” said Yashua Trent of the UNK basketball team.

“I honestly found out a lot about the town. Since I finally had time to cruise around without much worry, I discovered so many different little food spots most people wouldn’t normally spend time looking for or even finding small exploring grounds around town. You never know what you’ll stumble upon until you take the time to open your blinders the school has you looking through throughout year,” said Spencer Cook, a former Loper athlete.

Most people don’t really take the time to even explore their own city because they’re so concerned about finishing school that they miss out on a lot of what the city truly has to offer.

So if you’re ever stuck in your own town during spring break, I’ll leave you guys with these words.

“The world is your oyster, time to find the pearl of your city.”

Sometimes it’s better to relax and breathe instead of coming back to school still trying to recover from the break, I mean that’s what a break is for, right?