A Spring Break at Oxford

Well, Recess readers, since I have the privilege of writing the post-Spring Break editor’s note, I feel obligated to write—at least a little bit—about my own Spring Break. Unlike the masses of Duke students who frequented beach locations (every second I forget about this, my Facebook newsfeed reminds me of it), I did what I call the alternative Spring Break: I spent the week in Oxford doing research for my thesis. Now while my tone is a bit whiny, this was actually probably the ideal way I could’ve spent my spring break. Full disclosure—I love spending days in the library, I love doing research and I love getting to read for fun and then write about it. Plus, if you’ve ever been to Oxford, it’s the most beautiful place ever.

But while I was there, I did have a few revelations of my own. First, I traveled completely by myself, and while I met up with friends there, I spent most of the days on my own. I met so many new people, from a Nigerian professor to an American student studying abroad in Oxford, and the fact that I was alone really opened me up to those experiences. But it also meant that I didn’t have the comfort of another person to provide security and safety. Some nights I walked home alone from a night out with friends and I felt unsafe. I hated that I felt unsafe, because Oxford is a generally secure area and well-populated into the night, but the fact remains. I did.

Next, traveling by yourself is so glorious but also so hard. And don’t let anyone else tell you different. I am easily frazzled, yes, but the act of carrying your suitcase, figuring out the bus routes, determining where to stop for dinner and making sure you have enough pounds to do it-—all of that takes effort, and it’s especially more effort when you have to do it on your own at the same time with no one else’s guidance.

So logistically my trip was difficult, but it also was so rewarding. The real reason I was there was to look at two Medieval manuscripts-—one of a story based on the Trojan War, the other of Dante’s Divine Comedy. Being able to read the Latin on the (first) manuscript by myself—it was the coolest thing ever! There might have been tears in my eyes. (Tears that did not fall on the manuscript. Don’t worry, Bodleian.) Having the time to work on my thesis day in and day out was also amazing. I forgot how bogged down we all are by the constant pressures of Duke—the inundation of Facebook messages, text messages, meetings, GroupMes, Google Docs, Snapchats and Instagrams that come with a regular day at Duke. Sometimes it just gets to be too much.

That brings me to my next point: the influence of social media on Spring Break. For much of the time of my trip, I had an absentmindedly thrown Marie Claire magazine face up on the floor of my hotel room with a certain headline blaring from the pages: “Instagram ruined my vacation.” Sometimes I feel no truer sentiment has ever been written. The advent of snap stories for this year’s #springbreak2k16 meant I could literally see what my friends were doing every day (or at least what they wanted me to see). Sometimes it sucked. It’s easy to feel like your life isn’t fun when you’re seeing the best parts of someone else’s life. And while I know my friends did have fun, at some point you have to realize that your fun—complete with the ups and downs of regular life, the ones not visible on social media—is just as great. Not because it’s a competition, but because it’s life, it’s real and it’s beautiful.

So all of this philosophizing brings me to my last point, the real point of travel: discovering people from all over. If there’s one thing traveling teaches you, it’s that we’re all the same. We all want some of the same things and, no matter where we’re from or what we do, we can all relate to each other on some level. I hope I’ll remember that forever, not just after my return.