Thursday, March 28, 2024

Lure of open highway irresistible to student

The following is a quiz. Please consider it carefully.

Do you find yourself mindlessly channel-changing, looking for some stimulation? Is it your secret wish to be assigned term papers to research just so you’ll have something to do?

On the other hand, do you feel like life is being consumed with a routine that involves working, eating and sleeping? Do you feel like you are surrounded by chaos and you just can’t take it? Have you decided spending these vacation months in East Lansing is beginning to give “summer fun” a bad name?

Are you conflicted and shouting “yes, yes, yes” to all of these questions?

This is my first summer in East Lansing and I can tell you from experience that when a large portion of the student body vacates, so does much of the excitement that makes this town what it is.

In the past month, I have worked, cleaned my apartment (which is a rarity) and made a personal niche out of a back corner table at Rick’s American Cafe.

Other than my self-proclaimed title of “Bar Star,” I feel I am wasting what may be my very last summer as a full-blooded college kid. And as I sit here at my computer praying for some sunshine, I realize there is only one answer to my plight.

Two words: road trip.

Now all you levelheaded folk may be shocked at this suggestion - after all, gas prices have been flirting with the $2 mark. Nevertheless, I urge you - no, I beg you - to jump into your automobiles and flee. If you have not experienced the unadulterated bliss of hitting the open road, you have not lived!

This trip will be the complete antithesis of family vacations of your childhood. You will not have to fight with your siblings over the last Fruit Roll-Up, nor will you be subjected to horrid books on tape or even Barry Manilow.

“Are we there yet?” will be erased from your vernacular! You are the captain: You decide where to go, you decide how to get there and it is your ultimate say when you pee!

During the first day on the road, something bizarre happens. The dark cloud of boredom or unhappiness lifts and you are left in a Zen-like state. You no longer feel overburdened or apathetic, you forget about all the things making you crazy - in fact, if any of your problems manage to work their way into your head, it will not upset you in the least. You may actually think they are kind of funny.

While the goal of this expedition is specifically not to plan, you must work out a few details. You must choose your partners for this insanity, but you must choose wisely. Who you travel with is almost as important as where you travel to, so I suggest finding two like-minded friends who have a similar agenda.

Three is a perfect number. One person can sleep while the other two remain awake and throw marshmallows at oncoming traffic. Be sure your companions get along or you could face a horrific drive talking to yourself - and those issues are the sort you’re trying to leave at home!

Pick a destination - I suggest someplace far. Personally, I find nothing better than trekking to sunny California, especially if you make a game of getting there in less than 30 hours.

In a rut? Travel to a nearby city and take in the sights. Go to museums, bars where you don’t know a soul or baseball games. Need to unwind? Visit a smaller location and revel in the slow pace, quaint shopping and home cooking.

Try to avoid places where you could possibly run into a large number of people you know - unless you can stay with them for free. You can give fellow travelers fake names, wear the same shirt for multiple days, even talk in a foreign accent (if you can pull it off).

Refuse to blow-dry your hair, sneak into hotel rooms after checkout times for a free shower and enjoy the religious experience of eating in a truck stop.

Gaze in rapture at the modern art insects make once they are painfully squished onto your windshield.

Adopt the ideology that rules and those who try to impose them should be tossed from a car at high speeds!

Whatever you decide, just do it! Road tripping gives you the chance to recreate yourself, to break the rules, listen to loud music and escape the monotony of your everyday life. It is a sabbatical from responsibility and teaches you things you never dreamed possible. It can change you.

And sometimes it’s just nice to be anywhere than where you are for a bit, and unlike East Lansing in the summer, road tripping is anything but boring.

Tracy Weiss, a State News copy editor, can be reached at weisstra@msu.edu when she’s not busy drinking shots of Jack Daniels at Rick’s and getting speeding tickets while traveling to various destinations.

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