“Live It 24/7.” Can you believe how pitifully hypocritical Drexel’s slogan is? The University takes so much pride in giving students the chance to work toward their dream careers at all times, yet there’s a break of at least one week at the end of every term. The last time we checked, taking a break doesn’t fall under the category of “living it” in the sense that Drexel’s slogan implies. “Living it” means spending every waking moment (with no more than four hours of sleep in a typical night) engaged in classwork, co-op or campus activities. We can never fully live up to this lofty slogan unless we completely eradicate term breaks.
We were all eager to go on spring break last week, but once we got away from campus, we knew deep down that something just wasn’t right. All those fulfilling hours of homework were miles away. Some of us even got two consecutive full nights of sleep. Wow! Very absurd! Such scandal! No matter how much we tried to enjoy our spring break, we were perpetually haunted by the unbearable guilt of knowing that we were being complicit in Drexel’s shamefully false advertising campaign. We weren’t living it 24/7, but we still called ourselves real Drexel students.
Even now that we’re back to work, we still can’t escape the guilt of having borne false witness. It didn’t have to be like this. If only spring term had started immediately after the end of winter finals, we could have kept living it unceasingly instead of living a lie for a whole damn week. Lying aside, we even realized over this disgracefully unproductive break just how much we missed being constantly busy. Once you’re accustomed to it, having a to-do list that’s always longer than a hundred donkeys’ wieners is more addictive than crack. Combined with the guilt, our work withdrawal made some of us severely depressed to the point that we were having psychotic episodes until we finally got our work fix on the first day of spring term.
Spring break is absolutely not the only problem here. By the end of the two-week summer-fall break and the three-week winter break, most of us are all but certain we died and went to hell. Typically, the only times we avoid this traumatic experience are when we have the divine blessing of being forced to report to co-op during the break weeks. Why must this joy of nonstop work be reserved for a lucky few? The dangers of term breaks are far too well documented for the provost’s office and the board of trustees to ignore any longer. Term breaks are a ritual built on lies, a jarring disturbance to a work routine that’s supposed to make us the world’s best working professionals. Any Drexel student in favor of term breaks never should have enrolled here. Wearing the “Live It 24/7” badge is not optional for Drexel students. To wear it while joyfully taking time off from one’s studies and labors is grand blasphemy.