In an era gone by, wild spring break parties in Cabo were seemingly the holy grail of spring break, or at least that’s what MTV wanted us to think. Nowadays, students are just as content sitting at home in sweatpants watching “Friends” for six straight days as they would be getting wasted on a beach in Mexico.

Most students don’t feel any real pressure to go wild and have an over-the-top Spring Break vacation. “I feel like it’s just a matter of your opinion,” said EWU freshman Taylor Browning. “If you like to party then you’re going to go party, but if you don’t then you’re going to go have a fun spring break somewhere else.”

And truthfully, most people probably couldn’t care less what other people are doing for spring break in the sense of making them feel bad for not spending a solid week drunk. However, if anyone does feel pressured to head to the nearest beach and start taking shots of tequila, it’s less likely because their friends are making fun of them and more likely from a more widespread source.

There’s no question movies like “Spring Breakers” and “22 Jump Street” and TV shows like “Greek” that show college students having crazy, alcohol and drug-fueled spring breaks are pumped up for entertainment value. On the other side, however, there’s also no question those kinds of parties being shown as an average spring break can create unrealistic expectations we desire to live up to. Even when we recognize the fictional elements, it can be hard to shake the idea we need to be having more fun.

“I think the pressure comes probably from media and culture,” said recent EWU graduate Cody Brandt. “I don’t know if it’s necessarily from my co-workers or friends, but you know you see MTV or whatever go down to Cabo and they have their show on whatever they’re doing down there, people dancing down there, you see all the college students having a super good time.”

But, the key point is to remember that pressure is coming from a source that’s more or less a non-entity.

“[There’s] pressure from [media], but not from the people I’m surrounded with and the people I interact with every day,” said Brandt. “They’ll say what they’re doing, but they won’t pressure me. If they are going to party, they won’t be like, ‘Man, you have to come! You have to have a good time!’”

Ultimately, most of us don’t feel too much pressure from friends to do anything we can’t or don’t want to do. As long as we surround ourselves with positive people who aren’t too concerned with our spring break plans, there’s no need to add any stress to our already overfilled plates.