Spring break is a time where college students everywhere are on the move. A week-long break from campus responsibilities equals millions of college students displaced from their dorms and left alone to their own, often irresponsible devices.
That means fun. For most, that fun is fueled by traveling. Whether across the state, country or world, students are on the move.
The two primary modes of transportation mirror the traveler’s experience. Cars represent a journey of a lifetime, where planes seem to be a quick jump to the destination.
In honor of my 4,230 mile travel spring break being over, let’s talk about driving and flying, the two primary modes of serious vacation travel in the modern day.
For me, driving is at the top of my personal list. Even with the immense underlying costs, even if the vehicle is already in your possession, the ability to drive yourself anywhere and everywhere is as top-tier as transportation gets.
Driving is a breeze and the privacy of a personal vehicle means a five-hour car ride to Lake Placid, N.Y. can be a solo karaoke trip, or a scenic, serene stroll through the Adirondack Mountains. Stops can be as plentiful, or as few, as the driver would like, and the itinerary has no bounds besides the driver’s patience and the price of gas.
Long distances remain a challenge, but the journey that long drives present teaches an important lesson often overlooked in a society that prioritizes the quickest possible production; “sometimes it’s more about the journey than the destination.”
My trip to Lake Placid was as much about that journey as it was the final destination. Getting to experience the natural wildlife and beauty of the Adirondack Mountains made the final destination, the historic Herb Brooks Arena and all the fanfare that surrounded it at the women’s ice hockey ECAC Championship weekend, that much more interesting.
Was the drive back a little daunting at first? Sure. But the long stretches of pristine forest, paired with hours of chatting on the phone and enjoying my own company made the journey much more peaceful than tedious.
Detractors of cars will call their range limited. A valid criticism — but hardly an argument for planes. Those who fly aren’t always taking to the skies out of necessity. It’s primarily a matter of convenience.
Speaking of planes, what do they often represent? Well, when car travel is possible, they represent the optimized obsession of perceived efficiency. The modern belief is that the destination supersedes the journey.
When cost isn’t a factor, this is the method of transportation that allures most college students on the short, seven-day break. Flying over mass expanses of land in a quarter of the time as a long-haul road trip is exciting when the primary goal is to tan on the beach.
In my case, that destination driven travel took me to Madison, Wis.
Any thoughts about the city aside, no part of the journey piqued my interest. My only goal was to make it to the University of Wisconsin’s LaBahn Arena to watch the Bobcats.
I was successful in that goal and it was one of the top experiences of my life. But one thing that was missing from that incredible trip? Time to appreciate how I got there.
I gave very little thought of the journey from my hometown in Massachusetts to the Hilton Garden Inn in downtown Madison. Time that could’ve been spent appreciating the journey — the history of the area as I glanced at faded placards in rest stops or the beauty of landscapes unique to my eye — was replaced with meticulous studying of Franklin Pierce University senior goaltender Jill Hertl’s stats and counting the number of Olympians on the Wisconsin women’s hockey roster.
Important tasks, but ones that maximized the efficiency of my reporting, rather than enjoying the journey to see the nation on the way to the arena.
Airplanes brought me from Logan International Airport to Dane County Regional Airport in a third of the time it would’ve taken to drive there and that was with a layover in Charlotte, N.C. But the airplane robbed me of exploring the thousands of interesting specks 30,000 feet below the cargo hold that I may never have the opportunity to experience again.
As I move forward toward a career defined by timeliness — both the speed awarded by airplane travel and the ability to churn out content as fast as possible — my message remains to appreciate the journey. Even when that destination is at the forefront, or the mode of travel hardly facilitates it, appreciating the journey is what travel is all about.
