Oh Snap! The Lush on Spring Break 2K3

I took note of my surroundings. Five 21-year-old Tuftonians merely six weeks shy of graduation gazed out over the vast expanse of the Gulf of Mexico. Flanked on both sides by an endless stretch of resorts that creped nearly to the waters edge that screamed of good times, we grabbed our bags and headed toward the elevator. Too tired, hungover, and physically depleted to even take note of the moment, we shuffled down the hallway, quickly checked out of the hotel, and slumped into the leather seats of Adams Volvo to begin the journey back.

I laid my head against the window, pulled my shades over my eyes, and smiled. We did it. We had come and we had conquered and there was just no question about it: Panama City was ours.

It had all started just over a week before when five Tufts seniors crammed their bags and sunscreen into a car amidst another Boston winter snow storm and set out on a low-budget journey certain to produce stories and inside jokes for years to come. Our destination: Panama City Beach, Florida, the United States' most popular spring break getaway.

The crew was incredible. Six friends (we would be joined in Florida by someone who simply couldn't hack the drive), roommates, teammates, drinking buddies, and soon to be college graduates who had known each other since day one. This was our last hurrah -- our last showdown with collegiate debauchery. Our last chance to enjoy spring break like only college undergraduates can, and should.

And Panama City proved to be the perfect destination. Stretched out along the Gulf of Mexico and dotted with grandiose resorts that litter the coastal skyline, Panama City remains a fond reminder of the eighties. With its obscene amount of trendy T-shirt shops where you can Air Brush your days away and a main strip that screams "mullet," Panama City is truly a relic of the early years of the modern spring break adventure. But despite its penchant for crumbling hotels and a multitude of run down condos, Panama City still manages to flourish during the three weeks of college spring break, when excited undergraduates from all over the country make their way south to live out personally what they have seen on MTV.

For three years we had avoided the desire to succumb to MTV's and E Entertainment's publicity and the colorful flyers posted all over college lounges that promise spring break insanity. But we could hold out no longer. The beach beckoned, the fun in the sun lifestyle tempted, and we were powerless to resist. It was time to see what this scene was really all about. We arrived with high expectations, and to our delight, Panama City did not disappoint.

We'll remember the contests and the prizes, the free beer and countless trips to Subway to simultaneously please both our grumbling stomachs and our dwindling ATM accounts. We'll remember our successes (and failures) in the daily beach volleyball tournament whose outcome usually depended on who was and who was not partaking in routine trips to the cooler for another cold one.

We'll remember the surreal feeling of dancing in a club while the overhead TV's showcased the carnage in Baghdad, and the reality check we got when we met the marine who was shipping out the next morning. We'll tell stories about late night visits, gasp over indiscrete activities, and shield our eyes from incriminating photos that will hide deep in our dressers for years to come. And, we'll laugh when certain phrases are used, smiling when inside jokes understood by no one but ourselves transport us back to our weeklong jaunt in spring break paradise.

Remembering dearly how a quarter and a Milwaukee's Best can bring so much joy to a hotel suite, we will look fondly upon our six friendships that were solidified and enhanced over cocktails in the sun and shots at a bar, and we'll take comfort in the knowledge that it was the company that made the memories -- the setting simply decorated the details.

And above all, when all is said and done and we head off in May to begin our lives in a world that no longer offers week long breaks for no reason, we'll be able to look back and know that we did it right. Despite the cries from our wallets and the cramped quarters of the back seat, we made the right choice. We took advantage of the time we had, and our memories will be forever better for it.

I hope all my fellow seniors had the same safe and unforgettable spring break experience as I did, no matter where you were or whom you were with.