Returning from Spring Break

It’s the Monday following spring break and campus activities are returning to normal. As I went to my classes today I noticed that there were still quite a few people missing from class today. I can only assume these people are squeezing in some last-minute spring break activities before returning to the stressful life of a college student. Due to my spring break plans, or lack of plans, I was easily able to make a timely return to campus before classes resumed. Last week I talked about returning to campus with enough money to buy Apple Airpods. Although these expectations were very achievable, I returned to campus with nowhere near enough money to purchase Airpods. In fact, I returned to campus with less money than when I left. There are two factors that directly contributed to not having money for Airpods when I returned to campus.

My first waste of money over spring break was four consecutive visits to the casino in my hometown. The streak started off last Wednesday when one of my lifelong buddies called me and asked if I wanted to go to the casino. At this point, I was still saving up for Airpods so I decided that I would go, but only spend $20. This plan worked out fine until I ran out of money in less than an hour. Rather than getting more money out that night, I decided to leave the casino before it took all of my money. The next day was another friend of mine’s birthday. Fittingly, we headed to the casino to celebrate the occasion. I still had Airpods in the back of my mind, but since it was my buddy’s birthday I decided to ball out and spend a little bit more money at the casino. After celebrating my buddy’s birthday I no longer had enough money saved up to buy Airpods. From here I decided to just say screw it and went to the casino the following two nights. Although it was a lot of fun, I lost every dime I gambled over the course of the four days and lost all hopes of getting Airpods anytime soon.

Another leading factor in my depleted checking account was the amount of food I ate over spring break. It seemed like I went out to eat at least two times a day, never eating at the same restaurant twice. Because New Buffalo is a very small town with only a handful of restaurants, I was often required to make a 20-minute drive to the next town over if I wanted more options. So not only was I spending money on the food I was eating, but also on the gas I used driving around to all these different restaurants. These expenses added up very quickly and depleted whatever money I had left after my casino benders. Even though I will not be buying Airpods in the near future, I consider all the money I spent over spring break to be well spent. I was able to unwind and have fun with my friends for a week straight.