Those colorful and vibrant leaves are at rest for now. The branches are drier and it looks like the trees are longing for some watercolor in their foliage. But it’s just a fleeting season like any other. 

It’s almost spring, and along with it, we have the famous and beloved spring break.

It’s the perfect time to have a little more color in our daily lives, even if the trees don’t follow our path. It’s time to see beauty in the pause, in stopping little by little.

With spring break right around the corner, I decided to investigate students’ most popular spring break destinations and found something in common. 

Aidan Greenwell, a foreign language and international economics major student, said, “I’m going to Boston over break to visit my sister who is doing a co-op for a fashion design company, and I’m also visiting a friend who goes to school up there.”

Greenwell said he’s never been to Boston before and is super excited to be visiting for the first time. 

His reasons are quite interesting.“Boston was the first major American city so it has a lot of really cool history and museums so I’m really excited to check it out,” Greenwell said..

Without us even noticing, it’s clear that the destinations chosen during spring often have a deeper meaning.

We are constantly looking for a place that brings us peace and allows our passions to flourish, even if it is for the history of our country.

Manuela Blanco, a communication and integrated strategic communication major, said, “I’m going back home to Bogotá, Colombia, and I’m going back because I wasn’t able to go for Christmas. I’m going to spend some time with my friends and family. Also, there is a music festival that I really wanted to do, and it is exactly during spring break so everything just worked out”

That sentence hit my heart in a way that I was not expecting.

As an international student, as well as a Latina, I felt so close to the feeling of coming back, even for a week, to the smell of home — going back to a safe haven.

Facing a new world alone is not a task for just anyone.

Like Blanco, I believe that many other international students seek to find traits that remind them of home, even many miles away. 

This is the best time to go back to the roots, and not only international students feel this need.

“I’m going to Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. I’m going there because my family has been going there since I was born, and it’s a beautiful place with many fun activities including tennis, going to the beach, and swimming,” said Summer McCune, a computer science major student.

An island, isolated, but this is also home.

On spring break, students like McCune look for everything that brings them some isolation from the hard and intense life of a college student.

Of course, other destinations, such as Florida with its beaches and sun, were the big winners on the list of places to go during the break.

But these three stand out because they genuinely seek to go back to the roots of what reminds us of being safe, whether visiting a historic museum in Boston, going to concerts in their hometown or spending time on an island like in an episode of “Outer Banks.”

I don’t think there is a list of the “best spring break destinations.”

What actually exists are homes scattered around. 

What’s missing is just you and me looking for what brings us peace and harmony, even if only for a week.